The story Lorelai tells at the beginning of the episode about Frank Lloyd Wright's wife and the servant who set the house on fire and laid in wait to kill the survivors with an axe actually happened. Many details were off - it was actually Wright's longtime mistress, her children, and several members of the household who were killed by a mentally ill servant. Mamah Borthwick (Wright's mistress) was killed with a blow from the axe before the killer started the fire.
The scenes at "Yale" during the Gilmore's visit around the college were filmed at Pomona College in Claremont, California. A faux stone wall with a Yale sign was placed on Marston Quad for the outdoor scenes. The "administration building" is actually Big Bridges Auditorium.
When Rory is outside Dean's window, she refers to the woman named Butterfly who lived in a tree for a year. This is Julia Butterfly Hill who lived for two years in a thousand-year old redwood named "Luna." Her story is told in the book "Legacy of Luna: The Story of a Tree, a Woman, and the Struggle to Save the Redwoods."
At Friday night dinner, Rory isn't wearing Dean's bracelet. The scene when Rory & Lorelei are getting ready for the road trip, Rory mentions that the bracelet fell off in the shower that morning.
" When Rory leaves Luke's to go "study" she leaves her sweater then Luke takes it when he goes to look for her and Jess. However, when Rory meets up with Jess she is wearing the sweater. " This is entered under the "goofs" section and it is false. The heavier, gray sweater is the one Luke grabs. The sweater she is wearing for the rest of the episode is navy blue.