The houses of Stranger Things: the Byers house, the Creel house and the real addresses
Universe · Places · The houses
The houses of the show are characters: the Byers house, where Joyce talks to the lights; the Creel house, where it all started in 1959; the Wheelers' basement, the group's headquarters; the cabin where Hopper hides Eleven. Here is what happens there, and where they are in reality.
The essentials
- Byers house: the wall of lights, Castle Byers; filmed near Fayetteville, Georgia
- Creel house: Vecna's haunted house; Claremont House, Rome, Georgia
- Wheeler house: the basement and the D&D table; Atlanta suburbs
- Hopper's cabin: built for the show, in the woods
Contents
the Byers house
An isolated little house at the end of a path, a sagging porch, a living room invaded by Christmas lights: it is the most famous image of season 1. Joyce paints an alphabet on the wall there to talk to Will from the Upside Down, smashes a partition with an axe, and the house becomes the crossing point between the two worlds. In season 2, it serves as a map: Will sticks hundreds of drawings on it that form the tunnels under Hawkins.
The family leaves it for California after 1985, and finds it again in 1986, empty, before coming back to Hawkins in Season 5. In reality, it is a private wooden house, near Fayetteville, in Georgia, about 40 minutes from Atlanta. You can see it from the road; it is not open to visit.
Castle ByersThe fort of branches that Will builds with Jonathan, in the woods behind the house, is the one where he hides in the Upside Down in 1983, and the one he tears down, in tears, in Season 3, the day he understands that his friends have grown up.
The wall-of-lights T-shirt, letters included.
In the shopVisit Hawkins vintage tank top36,90 €See the product
the Creel house
A Victorian turreted house, abandoned since 1959, where Victor Creel was accused of killing his wife and daughter. Season 4 makes it Vecna's lair: in the Upside Down, that is where he has his body, guarded by the Demobats; in our world, that is where the party goes in to understand, and where Nancy, Steve and Robin attack him in the finale. The pendulum clock in his attic is the one his victims see before they die.
The real house, Claremont House, is in Rome, Georgia, an hour and a half from Atlanta. Built in 1882, turned into a bed-and-breakfast then an event venue, it can be visited at events and has become a fan pilgrimage.
the Wheeler house
A middle-class suburban house, with a basement: it is the show's headquarters. Mike runs the Dungeons & Dragons games there, Eleven sleeps there in a blanket fort, Karen drinks her wine there, Ted sleeps there in his armchair. Season 5 makes it a place of horror: it is in the upstairs bathroom that Karen fights the Demogorgon that kidnaps Holly.
The house was shot in a suburb south of Atlanta, in an ordinary residential neighborhood, which is exactly the effect wanted. The interior, though, was rebuilt on a soundstage.
Hopper's cabin
His grandfather's cabin, deep in the woods, where Hopper sets Eleven up in Season 2 with three rules (do not go out, do not open the door, do not put yourself in danger). It is the place of their father-daughter relationship, the Eggos, the fights, and the letter Hopper writes for Season 3. The Mind Flayer destroys it in 1985; it is rebuilt for Hopper's return in Season 4.
The cabin was built for the show and has no public address.
| House | Key season | Scene to remember | Reality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Byers | 1 | The wall of lights | Fayetteville, Georgia, private house |
| Creel | 4 | The attic clock | Claremont House, Rome, Georgia |
| Wheeler | 1 and 5 | The basement; the bathroom | Southern Atlanta suburbs, exteriors |
| Hopper's cabin | 2 and 3 | The three rules | Built set, no address |
The other places to live
Steve's house and its pool, where Barb disappears in Season 1; Eddie's trailer at Forest Hills park, where Chrissy dies in Season 4; Max and Billy's house, with Billy's room that Max no longer dares to open; Murray's bunker in Illinois. Each is the setting of a precise moment, and the show only reuses them to recall what happened there.
The figure to set on the mantel of your own Creel house.
In the shopLego Jonathan Byers mini figure on skateboard14,90 €See the product
The last season's houses
Season 5 adds two houses to the map. The Turnbows', where Derek's family is put to sleep by Erica's pie, and from which Derek is carried blindfolded to a barn, to fool Vecna. And the Wheelers', become the Byers' home during the quarantine, to Ted's great displeasure: that is where Holly is taken in her bathroom, and where Max tells her to go hide, in the version of the house that exists on the other side.
The Creel house now exists in three versions: the 1959 one, where Henry killed his family; the 1986 one, abandoned, where Nancy, Steve, and Robin burn Vecna; and the one in Henry's mind, where he welcomes Holly and the taken children, with its forbidden woods and its cave.
The real houses, and where they are
| House | Where it was filmed | What you can see of it |
|---|---|---|
| the Byers house | A wooden house at the end of a path, in a town south of Atlanta | Private property; visible from the road, do not disturb |
| the Creel house | An 1882 house in Rome, Georgia, for the exteriors | Visible from the street; the interiors are sets |
| the Wheeler house | A suburban house in a town in the Atlanta metro area | Private property |
| Hopper's cabin | A set built in the woods for season 2 | Taken down; it no longer exists |
| Pennhurst asylum | A private school near Rome, Georgia | University campus |
None of these houses is in Indiana: the show has been filmed in Georgia since 2015, around Atlanta, and the town of Jackson served as Hawkins's downtown.
Why the houses matter so much
The show is a story of houses because its monsters come into people's homes. The Demogorgon comes out of Joyce's living-room wall in 1983; the shadow enters Will through the back door in 1984; Vecna rises from the Creels' grandfather clock; a Demogorgon comes through Holly's ceiling in 1987. Each season picks a house and violates it.
That is also what makes the Upside Down so effective: it is not another world, it is the same house, the same street, the same bedroom, in ruins and in the dark. The Duffers have said they wanted, from season 1, a domestic horror, and the attack on the Wheeler house, which they had wanted since 2016, is its culmination.
The Byers house poster, for the living room.
In the shopHawkins forest poster19,90 €See the product
Frequently asked questions
Where is the Byers house?
In the fiction, on the edge of Hawkins. In reality, near Fayetteville, in Georgia: a private house visible from the road, not visitable.
Can you visit the Creel house?
Yes, for events: it is Claremont House, in Rome, Georgia, an 1882 home turned into a venue.
Where is the Wheelers' basement?
The exteriors were shot in a suburb south of Atlanta; the interior, basement included, is a studio set.
Does Hopper's cabin exist?
It was built for the show in the woods and has no address. It is destroyed in season 3 then rebuilt in season 4.
Where was the Creel house filmed?
The exteriors, in an 1882 home in Rome, Georgia, about an hour and a half from Atlanta. The interiors are studio sets.
Does Hopper's cabin still exist?
No. It was a set built in the Georgia woods for season 2, taken down since.