Last month, Netflix dropped a new trailer for the upcoming fourth season of “Stranger Things,” which is scheduled to debut sometime in 2022, and fans’ tongues were appropriately set wagging! Titled “Creel House,” the action-packed one-minute and 47-second segment opens idyllically on a family of four (whom viewers have surmised to be the Creels) moving into a gorgeous Victorian residence in the 1950s, strains of “Dream a Little Dream of Me” playing in the background. But all is not what it seems as the scenery soon shifts to the home’s dimly-lit entry, where the Creel patriarch is standing over what appears to be the dead bodies of his two young children. Flash forward three decades to the 1980s and Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) and his friends are shown wandering through the since dilapidated Victorian, flashlights in hand, searching for clues and quoting Sherlock Holmes, a grandfather clock tick-tocking ominously in the background. Raising more questions than answers, the trailer certainly portends danger heading the way of our favorite Hawkins residents. As “Stranger Things” creators Matt and Ross Duffer affirmed in a recent press release, “A new horror is beginning to surface, something long-buried, something that connects everything . . . Season four is shaping up to be the biggest and most frightening season yet.”
The season is also shaping up to be the most visually dazzling yet because the Creel house is an absolute stunner! And though much of the upcoming storyline is shrouded in secrecy, one thing fans don’t have to wonder about is where to find the gorgeous Victorian. As documented copiously over the past year by pretty much everyone with a cameraphone and Twitter account, not to mention countless news outlets, the Creel residence can be found about 70 miles northwest of Atlanta, in Rome, Ga.
Though significantly distressed by the production team for the 1980s portions of the shoot, in real life the pad stands flawlessly at 906 E. 2nd Ave. SW, without even a single shingle out of place. (Please remember this is a private home. Do not trespass or bother the residents or the property in any way.)
-
Image Credit: Redfin Known as the Claremont House, the Gothic Revival-style structure was originally built in 1882 for Colonel Hamilton Yancey, a local lawyer and deputy state insurance commissioner described by his 1931 obituary as “one of north Georgia’s most prominent citizens.” According to Visit Georgia Online, Hamilton’s wife, Florence, named the property in honor of her favorite cousin, Clare De Graffenried.
Said to be “one of Rome’s most prominent historic homes,” the two-story dwelling, which is also often referred to as the Yancey House, took three years to construct and features six bedrooms and seven baths in an impressive 7,122 square feet.
Set far back from the road behind a large expanse of rolling lawn, the exquisite façade is marked by a dramatic peaked portico, a sweeping porch, glorious arched windows and doors, ornate wood framing and a striking central mansard tower.
-
Image Credit: Redfin Run as a bed and breakfast in recent years, the interiors are a rich mix of original features including chestnut and walnut parquet flooring, handsome pine and walnut moldings and floor-to-ceiling built-ins, all capped by 14-foot ceilings.
Living spaces include a formal dining room that seats 12, a sun porch, a family room, a breakfast room and a kitchen with a walk-in pantry, double oven and oversized fridge.
-
Image Credit: Facebook The Claremont House also boasts a whopping eight fireplaces, an unfinished attic (for those looking for something extra spooky!) and a built-in wall safe that the bed and breakfast owners charmingly utilized as board game storage.
-
Image Credit: Redfin The dwelling sits on a pristine one-acre parcel featuring mature oak trees and a standalone two-bedroom, one-bath guest residence.
Unfortunately, by March 2019, the Claremont House Bed and Breakfast proved no longer financially viable and, after 16 years of operation, was shuttered and put up for sale, much to the sadness of locals and longtime patrons. It sold that July for $350,000 and, per the Claremont House B&B Facebook page, is now a private home.
The sale was a fortuitous one for the new owners being that the “Stranger Things” crew descended upon the property just a few months later, first filming on the premises in early 2020 before the pandemic hit and then returning once production picked back up again last summer.
-
Image Credit: Netflix Though the exterior of the Creel house is only featured briefly in the “Stranger Things” trailer, it certainly makes an impact!
-
Image Credit: Netflix -
Image Credit: Redfin From what is shown in the short segment, it appears that the property’s actual interior is also being utilized on the series – or a set very closely resembling it was built for the shoot.
Per the show’s Twitter feed, the 1980s version of Victor Creel, described as “a disturbed and intimidating man who is imprisoned in a psychiatric hospital for a gruesome murder in the 1950s,” will be played by none other than Robert Englund, the actor best known for portraying Freddy Krueger in the hugely popular “A Nightmare on Elm Street” horror franchise.
-
Image Credit: Ghost House Underground The Claremont House also cameoed in another spooky production. It is at the pad that the students of Cosa High School hide out in “Dance of the Dead,” a 2008 zombie comedy film that Amazon rather irreverently summarizes as such, “On the night of the big high school prom, the dead rise to eat the living, and the only people who can stop them are the losers who couldn’t get dates to the dance.” Horrific, indeed!