Wilmington / Wrightsville Beach - During filming Dawson's Creek filmed mainly in the towns of Wilmington, Southport & Wrightsville Beach North Carolina.  On the show the characters were often seen in the small quaint riverfront town of downtown Wilmington.  Most of these "in town" shots on the show where filmed in the historic district of Wilmington (along the Cape Fear River River Walk or a few streets up).  The downtown historic area is basically a grid with many charming old stores and shops with a lot of neat architecture which was perfect for filming! Water Street, Dock Street, Nutt Street, Market Street & Princess Street just to name a few.  Dawson, Jen & Joey's houses are all located on streets out off of Greenville Loop on the way out to Wrightsville Beach.  Also on the way out to Wrightsville is the Bend at Arlie Rd, Arlie Gardens, and the Dockside Restaurant which served as the filming location of the Icehouse deck scenes.  Almost immediately across from the Dockside is the Bluewater Grill which was used in the beauty contest episode and the Wedding episode where Abby Morgan drowns.  In Wrightsville itself Pacey and Gretchen's beach house used to reside at Atlantic Ave., but has since been moved away due to hurricane damage and is being restored.  The Oceanic Pier which is used in the opening credits is in Wrightsville Beach and just at the end of the beach at Masonboro Inlet there is a beach pagoda that was used in several scenes including the hurricane episode where Doug & Pacey are putting out warning flags on the beach.  The waterway behind Wrightsville Beach is called Banks channel it that is where the famous sail boat races took place.  The show used one of  the private piers along the channel which they made look like a marina for they Joey/Pacey/Dawson argument after the race.  I found these pictures here on another site which were filmed in during the filming of those scenes.  The show also filmed a few times at Holden Beach, Caswell Beach, Kure Beach & Fort Fisher.  Here also is a legend with some of the local attractions (some of which are show related).