Singles Filming Location: Coryell Court Apartments

If there is one film that captures with precision what it felt like to live through the early 1990s under the influence of the Seattle bands, that film is Singles. Released in 1992 and directed by Cameron Crowe, it follows a group of young single adults navigating romantic frustration in a city where music was seeping through the walls of clubs, cafés, and apartment buildings.

At the center of the story is a particular building — a complex of small one-bedroom apartments where different characters’ lives intersect, reinforcing, with quiet irony, the film’s title itself.

That building is real, and it still stands in Seattle. Coryell Court Apartments remains exactly where it always was, still occupied, and looking remarkably similar to what appears on screen. The building dates from the 1920s and follows the U-shaped format characteristic of residential architecture in the Pacific Northwest from that era: exposed brick facade, modest proportions and a central entrance with a staircase and garden courtyard.

It is that courtyard, flanked by the two wings of the building, that greets arrivals and farewells departures. And it is there that one of the most memorable moments in the film takes place — one that draws rock fans from around the world. That is where the scene unfolds showing Janet (Bridget Fonda) watching Cliff (Matt Dillon) testing his car’s new sound system, while Chris Cornell comes down the stairs and appears beside them, nodding along.

The Capitol Hill neighborhood, where Coryell Court is located, was in 1991 the epicenter of Seattle’s alternative scene. Bars, cafés, music venues, and an urban density that fostered exactly the kind of community Singles portrays. The neighborhood has changed significantly since then, but traces of that map remain. A walk through the surrounding streets is an essential part of the visit.

Filming for Singles took place between March and May of 1991. During that exact window, Pearl Jam was in the studio recording Ten, their debut album. Soundgarden was working on the tracks that would become Badmotorfinger. And Chris Cornell, Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard, and Jeff Ament — all of whom have cameo appearances in the film — were also involved in the release of Temple of the Dog, the project honoring Mother Love Bone vocalist Andrew Wood, who had died in March 1990. Cameron Crowe’s camera captured, perhaps without fully knowing it, a moment of transition that only time would make fully legible.

In the film, Eddie Vedder, Stone Gossard, and Jeff Ament appear as members of the fictional band Citizen Dick, while Soundgarden and Alice in Chains perform in live sequences. It ended up being, almost accidentally, a documentary disguised as fiction.

Coryell Court is an active residential building — people live there. A visit is entirely possible and welcome from the outside, but calls for discretion: take your photos calmly, stay out of private areas, and respect the quiet of the place. The staircase alone provides more than enough framing for any photograph worth taking.