IconMoveProtect IconOUAT IconLocation IconStorybrooke IconS1 IconS2 IconS3 IconS4 IconS5 IconS6 IconS7

Emma Swan: What are you doing here?
Regina Mills: Bringing flowers to my father's grave like I do every Wednesday.
Emma Swan and Regina Mills src

The Storybrooke Graveyard is a Storybrooke location featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It first appears in the seventh episode of the first season.


During First Curse

After Regina casts a curse, she and many Enchanted Forest residents are taken away to Storybrooke. Near the town graveyard, inside a mausoleum, the tomb of Regina's father rests. In truth, it serves as a decoy to cover a set of stairs beneath the tomb, which she uses to access her vault. ("The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter", "Welcome to Storybrooke")

Eighteen years later, Regina goes on to adopt a baby boy who she names Henry. Despite learning that he is the child of the curse savior, she grows to love the boy as her own. Ever fearful of his biological mother taking him away, Regina passes by the graveyard into her vault and drinks a potion to forget everything she previously learned. ("Save Henry")

Following Emma's arrival to town, the curse begins to weaken, and Sheriff Graham regains some memories from his prior life, in which he lost his heart. When he consults Henry about it, the boy gives him information about the vault, where the Evil Queen stores the hearts she took from people. Although skeptical about Graham's story, Emma teams up with him after they both recognize a wolf and chase it to the graveyard. Breaking into the mausoleum, the pair search for his heart, but do not find it. Regina, arriving to pay respects to her father, angrily confronts them about trespassing. Outside, Graham rejects Regina's offer to take him home, and he permanently breaks off their relationship, which has been sexually motivated. Regina blames his sudden rejection on Emma, who smugly reveals Graham kissed her. As the two women get into an altercation, he stops them and leaves with Emma. Realizing Graham is no longer under her control, Regina goes into the vault and ends his life by crushing his heart. ("The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter")

After First Curse

Wishing to rescue Emma and Mary Margaret after they fell into a portal, Henry tricks Regina into meeting him at the diner for lunch, but once she leaves her office, he enters to grab her keys. Passing through the graveyard, he goes into Henry's mausoleum, unveiling the hidden stairs, and goes down to the vault room. Regina, realizing Henry was lying, calls David to check up on the boy. David gets to the vault in time to save him from a box of vipers. ("Lady of the Lake")

Upset at Regina's inability to send him home, Dr. Whale gets revenge by breaking into her vault, stealing a heart as well as Daniel's preserved corpse, and resurrects the man. Following a therapy session with Dr. Hopper, a perplexed Regina sees Daniel. Unsure if it's a hallucination, she cuts past the cemetery and into the vault; discovering Daniel's body missing. ("The Doctor")

Cora, intending to ruin her daughter's reputation, masquerades as her and glamours a deceased person to give the impression that Regina killed Archie. With the whole town believing she murdered him, Regina disappears to her vault. The next day, at the graveyard, the townspeople gather for Archie's funeral as Mary Margaret delivers a eulogy to honor him in death. Unknown to them, the deceased person they laid to rest was magically glamoured by Cora to look like Archie. ("The Cricket Game", "The Outsider")

After striking a deal with Mr. Gold to help locate his son, Cora obtains information from him about Regina's house, which she snoops through. Finding an arts and craft hand-print that Regina's son Henry made, Cora uses it to take on the boy's appearance. She then walks into the cemetery and enters the vault calling for Regina, who naively believes her son has come looking for her. ("In the Name of the Brother")

In a struggle to obtain the Dark One's dagger, Mary Margaret forfeits the weapon to Cora and Regina to protect Johanna, but her friend is still killed in the aftermath. Heartbroken, Mary Margaret buries her in the graveyard and adorns her tombstone with snowdrop flowers. Considering Cora a menace that must be stopped, she vows to kill her, as a dismayed David looks on. ("The Queen Is Dead")

During a battle with Cora and Regina in the pawnshop, Mary Margaret sneaks off to the vault. There, she uses a candle to curse Cora's heart and then tricks Regina into returning the heart to its rightful owner. In doing so, the candle curse will cause Cora to die while Mr. Gold's life is saved. After manipulating Regina into taking the heart to Cora, Mary Margaret sits outside in regret over her actions. Finding her, David learns what she did, to which both rush back to the pawnshop to stop Regina. ("The Miller's Daughter")

Since trading bodies with Henry, Peter Pan plots to make Storybrooke the new Neverland. Going home with Regina for the evening, he examines the storybook and sees a photo of the vault in the graveyard. During the night, he unleashes his Shadow, who wreaks havoc upon town by killing a resident. Using Regina's love for Henry to his advantage, Pan begs her to protect him. She then barricades herself and Henry inside the vault while the others deal with the shadow. However, Pan succeeds in knocking out Regina and making off with the curse scroll. The real Henry, in Pan's body, proves his true identity to Emma. With her, Belle, David, Mary Margaret and Mr. Gold, they rejoin Hook, Neal and Tinker Bell, who are waiting outside the vault. Unable to open the door, Mr. Gold works his magic to unseal the entrance. While they wait, David and Mary Margaret advise Emma about moving on with life and not worrying too much, though she is tired of never catching a break from magical problems. Once the door is open, they discover an unconscious Regina with the curse scroll missing. ("The New Neverland")

In the graveyard, the group listen to Mr. Gold's plan to stop Pan from enacting the curse. Since Regina is the original curse caster, she must undo Pan's curse by destroying the scroll. To accomplish this, Mr. Gold proposes they switch Henry and Pan to their rightful bodies so Henry can give the scroll to Regina. A strong magic outlet is necessary for the spell, so Tinker Bell mentions the Black Fairy's wand could work. She, David, Hook and Neal go to retrieve it from the nuns as everyone disperses. The shadow, having heard the entire conversation, flies off to report everything to Pan. ("Going Home")

After Second Curse
Cruella De Vil was buried there after being killed by Emma. Her grave was visited by Isaac and Mr. Gold while Emma watched from afar. ("Lily")



On-Screen Notes

  • There are headstones in the graveyard with inscriptions that date at least as back as 1837,[1] although the Graveyard was created by the Dark Curse in 1983. ("The Queen Is Dead")

Props Notes

Set Dressing

  • Some of the gravestones say:
In Loving Memory of

Norman Crane
January 12, 1937 – July 17, 1999
Born in Brooklyn, New York[3]
("The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter")

[image begins]atherine Fox

March 27, 1837
Died July 2 [illegible]92[1]
("The Queen Is Dead")

Knut Helmut Schmidt

1914 - 1945
Loving husband & father
Remembered forever[4]
("The Miller's Daughter")

Remembered Always

1902 - 1987

  • The name on the headstone is a stone-based pun: A beryl is a gemstone and a dendrite is a crystalline structure with a tree-like pattern found within many types of minerals, including beryls.[8]


Filming Locations


Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.


  1. 1.0 1.1 File:215BeautifulService.png
  2. File:211AsArchie.png
  3. File:107Gravestone.png
  4. File:216Regret.png
  5. File:107WolfWalksAway2.png
  6. File:601CastingProtectionSpell2.png (in the lower left hand corner)
  7. File:513IfHesDownHere.png
  8. DENDRITIC FACETED QUARTZ 9.50 CTS RG-831. Gem Rock auctions. Retrieved on July 7, 2019. “Dendrites can occur in other gems as well, including opal and beryl.”
  9. File:601CastingProtectionSpell2.png
  10. File:705WatchOurLives.png
  11. File:107WolfWalksAway2.png
  12. 12.0 12.1 File:310KeepMyMagic.png
  13. 13.0 13.1 File:320HeartVault.png
  14. File:215RemainsUntouched.png
  15. File:320GreenSmoke2.png
  16. File:404EyeOfNewt.png
  17. File:410HeartVault.png
  18. File:107WolfWalksAway2.png
  19. File:107DoingHere.png
  20. File:205HeartVault.png
  21. TwitterLogo @BastardSonVan (Larry Andreutti) on Twitter (August 22, 2015). "Yeah, it's a cemetery in North Van; the scene with Gold and Bae's grave and when Elsa sees Anna's spirit" (screenshot)
  22. FlickrIconTemplate Lawrence Andreutti. Once Upon A Time October 24, 2014 (page 1) (October 24, 2014).  "Once Upon a Time set photos from Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC taken on October 24, 2014.(archive copy)
  23. TwitterLogo @sassyfangirl55 (Megan) on Twitter (September 5, 2015). "A few pictures of the #OUAT sets today!" (screenshot)
    TwitterLogo @sassyfangirl55 (Megan) on Twitter (September 5, 2015). "nope, Robert Burnaby Park" (screenshot)
  24. TwitterLogo @BastardSonVan (Larry Andreutti) on Twitter (March 7, 2016). "#OnceUponATime at Riverview Hospital today" (screenshot)
    TwitterLogo @WhatsFilming (What's Filming) on Twitter (March 7, 2016). "#OnceUponATime is filming at Riverview today." (screenshot)
    TwitterLogo @bonbuffy (Lexi) on Twitter (March 7, 2016, from Coquitlam, British Columbia). "all I can tell you is there was a funeral scene most of the cast were there. Robin was not & I heard from someone he was killed" (screenshot)
    TwitterLogo @bonbuffy (Lexi) on Twitter (May 3, 2016). "they also used the tunnels below to film that day" (screenshot) (note: this tweet refers to the filming of scene in the the secret tunnel beneath the Storybrooke Town Hall in the same episode)
    TwitterLogo @bonbuffy (Lexi) on Twitter (May 3, 2016). "it was not filmed in the usual cemetery they made this set in a different location" (screenshot)
  25. Once Upon A Time shoots season 6 episode 601 scenes with Lana Parrilla and Ginnifer Goodwin in Steveston. Canadagraphs (July 28, 2016). “Lana Parrilla and Ginnifer Goodwin shot a scene in the park at the far end of the village. Despite its quite well hidden from the general footpath traffic of the main "Storybrooke" set of Moncton Street, a crowd of about 75 people showed up to watch this early scene. The scene had the pair talking in front of Reginas vault before they turn around and leave together. Question is.... what is it that they were talking about? I can tell you, it has something to do with Regina telling Snow something about Zelena. What that isexactly, [sic] I cant say.”
  26. TwitterLogo @OUAT_Source_FR (Source OUAT FR) on Twitter (September 21, 2016). "Filming in Burnaby, Central Park on Sept. 21th. #5. On set : Josh, Ginny, Lana & Colin. Maybe : Jen & Jared." (screenshot)
  27. Haigh, Rose (October 23, 2016). Wish you were here. (Blogspot). Hookfoundme. Archived from the original on September 10, 2018.
    FlickrIconTemplate Lawrence Andreutti. Once Upon A Time October 21, 2016 (October 21, 2016).  "Once Upon a Time set photos from Central Park, Burnaby, BC taken on October 21, 2016.(archive copy)
