Where Was ‘Stranger Things’ Filmed?
Where was Stranger Things filmed? The hugely popular Netflix original series was an instant cult classic from the time it premiered on July 15, 2016. The horror/sci-fi series is set in Hawkins, Indiana, a fictional town. But it was filmed 600 miles South of there.
Where Was Stranger Things Filmed?
Like so many films and TV shows these days, Stranger Things filmed in Atlanta, Georgia, and the surrounding areas. Here’s a rundown of some of the locations, both interior and exterior, where 21 Laps Entertainment chose to shoot the series.
Hawkins National Laboratory, a key location, is really the shuttered Georgia Mental Health Institute on the campus of Emory University. Hawkins Middle and High School scenes were shot at a closed-down school, Patrick Henry High School, southeast of Atlanta.
East Point First Baptist Church (ironically southwest of ATL) served as Hawkins General Hospital. The town’s police station was at an old city building in Douglasville, GA. And D-ville also provided the location for the Palace Arcade and video store next door.
Stranger Things also used the East Point library for some interior scenes. They created the downtown area of Hawkins using historic Jackson, GA an hour SE of downtown Atlanta. But what about the character’s homes?
Did The Whole Netflix Series Film in Georgia?
Jackson Georgia was the location for many scenes in Stranger Things.
Netflix filmed a lot inn downtown Jackson, Georgia. Th Hawkins library on the show was really a probate courthouse. The library was an actual library. Melvald’s General store was actually Jackson Drug where Joyce Byers worked.
Hawk theatre scenes taped at a furniture store and they simply added a marquee to get the right look for Stranger Things. So, where did they find the homes for the main characters of the Netflix series, now heading into its fourth season?
Joyce, Jonathan, and Will Byers’ house is located in Fayetteville, Georgia, less than an hour south of downtown. Mike Wheeler, his sisters Nancy and Holly, and their parents Karen and Ted Wheeler, have a nice two-story home they found at East Point.
These are all exterior shots. They filmed interiors at a studio. Lucas Sinclair’s home exterior is also in East Point, as is the home of Dustin Henderson and Barb Holland’s house.
Location scouts found other Stranger Things homes further afield. Steve Harrington’s house sits in Riverdale, GA while Max and Billy Hargrove’s place was on the other side of the ATL in Stone Mountain.
Where Did Each Season of Stranger Things Tape?
Most of the home and business locations were the same in seasons 1-4. Other locales include Benny’s Burgers, which taped at Tiffany’s Kitchen in Lithia Springs (just west of ATL). Bradley’s Big Buy is actually a Piggly Wiggly store in Palmetto, GA.
Fair Mart played itself in Stranger Things. But property owners demolished it after taping. And Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth, GA subbed in for Starcourt Mall, a place where things went really bad.
The quarry was Bellwood Quarry, where they “found” the body of Will Byers. And they used some paths at Stone Mountain Park for Eleven and her friends out walking.
The interior scenes filmed at EUE/Screen Gems Studios, an 11-stage studio set on 33 acres south of Atlanta. But the series also filmed in one other location, very far from Atlanta.
Surfer Boy Pizza is in Las Lunas, New Mexico, near Albuquerque. Also nearby is the new Byers’ house. They moved there with Eleven post-season 3. While this location is supposed to be in Los Angeles, the subdivision where Joyce, Jonathan, and Will Buyers live (along with Eleven) is obviously in New Mexico as it looks just like the subdivision from Breaking Bad. Which was filmed in Albuquerque.
Netflix’s Stranger Things filmed a lot of season 4 in NM in various locations and also the high desert.
These are subbing in for California – as seen in the trailer above for S4. Stranger Things season 1 debuted July 15, 2016. Season 2 began October 27, 2017. And season 3 started July 4, 2019. COVID forced a three-year delay and so season 4 begins May 27, 2022.