The Creel House from ‘Stranger Things’ Can Now Be Yours

Claremont House was last offered for sale in March 2019. At the time, it had been operating as a bed and breakfast for the better part of two decades and, as the listing noted, was “showing a bit of deferred maintenance” and therefore was “priced accordingly” at $499,999. It was snapped up at a significantly reduced $350,000 a few months later and the buyers immediately set about a full-blown overhaul of the historic home, thoroughly rehabbing it from top to bottom, inside and out! As evidenced by the current MLS images as compared to the ones from 2019, Claremont House looks like a completely different property today!

Prior to the renovation, most of the dwelling’s walls were bare of wainscotting, the glorious inlaid wood floors obscured by carpeting, much of the hand-carved walnut and pine woodwork painted white and the majority of surfaces covered in heavily printed wallpaper. But the remodel brought the property back to life! Restored to its original glory, the refurbished pad is a dazzling blend of textures, colors and light that reads like a pristinely preserved 1880s time capsule.

While each room is seemingly prettier than the last, the formal entry is a true work of art with wide crown moldings, an original fireplace (one of 11 on the premises!), ornately carved wainscotting and a grand hand-crafted staircase that elegantly curves upward toward the second level above.

Open to each other via grandiose archways, the stately living spaces are fashioned with 14-foot ceilings, parquet flooring and an abundance of elaborate custom built-ins, including glass-front cabinetry and a marble-topped buffet.

Although the massive kitchen has been wholly updated, it retains the aura of its historic Victorian roots, seamlessly complementing the adjacent rooms. Modernized culinary comforts include a 15-foot island fashioned out of black marble, an 11-burner professional range, a farmhouse sink, an integrated refrigerator and both a walk-in pantry and a butler’s pantry. Designed for gathering, the inviting space is a significant departure from the home’s pre-renovation kitchen, which was desperately crying out for a makeover. 

The seven bedrooms have also been expertly renovated. Spacious and warm, most feature fireplaces, hardwood flooring and updated ensuite baths. 

The home’s roof, electrical system and plumbing were all replaced as part of the renovation, as well.

Outside, you’ll find two large porches for lounging (or, ahem, resting your bones), an incredible exterior foyer crafted out of inlaid wood and a two-story guest house complete with two bedrooms, a sitting room, a kitchen and a bathroom. 

The property also boasts an unfinished attic, an antique wall safe, what the listing describes as “the most beautiful [and quite possibly only] cast iron urinal you’ll ever see,” and, of course, some serious small-screen cred!

Claremont House figures at the center of the latest season of “Stranger Things,” popping up as the supposed Hawkins, Ind. residence belonging to Victor Creel (“Nightmare on Elm Street” alum Robert Englund), who purchases it in 1959 after inheriting “a small fortune” from a relative. Though Victor’s young daughter, Alice (Livi Birch), describes the dwelling as “a fairy tale . . . a dream,” it quickly proves anything but! Within a month’s time, the family begins to experience haunting hallucinations at the hands of an evil entity that seemingly possesses the house, before finally being killed off one-by-one one fateful night, save for Victor who survives and is erroneously jailed for familicide.

As detailed by Gold Derby, while preparing for season four, “Stranger Things” production designer Chris Trujillo and his team scoured Atlanta and its environs, searching for Victorian-style properties with a “heavy, imposing mansard roof profile” to play the Creel residence before ultimately landing on Claremont House. Although located relatively far outside the ATL (and a good 70 miles northwest of EUE/Screen Gems Studios, which serves as the production’s hub), the trek proved worth it! 

Featured prominently in the show’s early season four trailers which debuted in September 2021, the Creels’ pad started generating massive buzz long before the episodes finally hit Netflix this past May. Described by Trujillo as “the ‘Stranger Things’ version of the quintessential haunted house,” the place proved absolutely captivating onscreen!

The location also provided a unique challenge for the production team as it is presented in four different iterations throughout the season. It is first shown in its idyllic 1959 form before later appearing in a present-day abandoned state as well as in two different versions of the Upside Down – the familiar particle- and vine-filled UD and a more barren counterpart that Trujillo describes as the “base layer of Vecna’s mindscape.” As such, the episodes made use of both the real Claremont House and studio-built sets for interior scenes.

The actual inside of the residence appears in the flashback scenes set in 1959. Trujillo explained to Gold Derby, “We were lucky – the interior was just really an amazing inspiration. The main floor of it was exactly what we wanted architecturally.”

Some of the homeowners’ personal décor even served as part of the scenery, including the gold mirror displayed over the fireplace in the entry hall. The overly creepy grandfather clock that played so prominently in the storyline was just a prop, though, brought in for the shoot and, thankfully, removed once filming wrapped.

For the present-day scenes, which depict the Creel residence in a severely dilapidated state, Trujillo and his team dressed Claremont’s exterior with broken wood boards, chipped shutters and a plethora of overgrown foliage. But once Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo), Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) and their monster-hunting friends step inside the abandoned property, filming shifts to a set reconstruction at EUE/Screen Gems Studios, which Trujillo painstakingly modeled after the Victorian’s real interior. He told Gold Derby, “We surveyed the whole house and fastidiously re-created the elements that we really loved . . . It was such a big house, we were able to invent the geography of the upstairs floors and the attic to kind of make it work for us.”

That same set was then given the Upside Down treatment for the scenes taking place in Hawkins’ scary otherworld, as well as in Vecna’s mindscape.

Don’t go looking for the playground purported to be located across the street from the Creel property anywhere on the premises, though. According to the Atlanta Filming Instagram account, the retro-inspired park was a set constructed solely for the series on an empty lot at the corner of Conley St. and Yale Ave. in College Park.

“Stranger Things” is not Claremont House’s only claim to fame. The residence is also where some Cosa High School students hide out in the 2008 zombie comedy film “Dance of the Dead.”

Considering its exquisitely revamped interior, the Victorian will likely be popping up in productions for years to come! 

Update – the Creel House has sold! After just a little over a month on the market, an offer of $1.6 million ($100,000 over asking!) was accepted by the Toles, Temple & Wright team (pictured above) and the place has since closed escrow. The buyers’ information is currently being kept anonymous, but they’ll no doubt prove far more welcome inhabitants than a young Henry Creel (Raphael Luce) and his legion of spider friends!

For those feeling some major “Stranger Things” withdrawals waiting for the fifth season to be unveiled (which won’t be until 2024!), a local high school dance team staged a huge Upside Down-themed number on the grounds of the Claremont House earlier this month. It’s worth a watch for the fabulous costumes alone!