Considering its title, the 2018 film “The House with a Clock in its Walls” would have been nothing without a fabulously spooky residence at its center. Based on John Bellairs’ 1973 young adult book of the same name, the Eli Roth-directed movie tells the story of orphan Lewis Barnavelt (Owen Vaccaro) who is sent to live with his eccentric Uncle Jonathan (Jack Black) in a mysterious mansion following the untimely death of his parents. Set in New Zebedee, Michigan in 1955, the family flick has been described as a “starter horror movie,” with Roth drawing his fantastical inspiration from such purveyors of the macabre as Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro.
Jon Hutman, the celebrated production designer behind the memorable looks of “Something’s Gotta Give,” “The Holiday,” “It’s Complicated” and “Heathers,” was tasked with creating the movie’s wondrous, shadowed world. And while a real Victorian in Bellairs’ native Marshall, Michigan served as the model for the titular residence in the book, Hutman and his team looked elsewhere for the screen version, ultimately settling upon a rambling turreted dwelling known as the Parrott-Camp-Soucy House located about 40 miles southwest of Atlanta in Newnan, Georgia.
Hutman altered the exterior of the property for the shoot, telling the Motion Picture Association, “We built the big spooky wall and gates where it used to be sort of wide open, and made it all overgrown and funky. It’s really the wall and the big scary wrought-iron gates that changed the tone of the house.” One look at the pad’s exterior, though, and it’s clear the place has a tone all its own! In fact, back in 1991, long before it became cinematically famous, The Atlanta Constitution deemed the residence a “tourist-stopping attraction” thanks to the many passersby who would regularly pop by to gawk at the majestic exterior.
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Image Credit: Coldwell Banker Homes Located at 155 Greenville St., the elegant dwelling was initially erected way back in 1842 and has undergone a number of significant alterations in the 179 years since. (Please remember this is a private home. Do not trespass or bother the residents or the property in any way.) According to The Newnan Times-Herald, the pad was originally built as a one-story structure with the second level added six years later, at which time the exterior was also revamped into a Greek Revival design. The façade was then changed once again in 1886 to its current state by Judge John. S. Bigby, who had purchased the place the year prior as a wedding present for his daughter, Callie Bigby Parrott. The property was subsequently acquired by the Camp family in 1936 and then by Doris and Charles Soucy in 1984, hence its long multi-hyphenated name.
Featuring eight-foot windows, a peaked portico and an ornate roofline, the residence has been described as being everything from Stick Eastlake to Second Empire to French Mansard in style. Boasting an attractive mix of eclectic Victorian elements, the property certainly seems to defy categorization. As such, it is no surprise that it was chosen to be featured on the cover of the 1990 book “East Coast Victorians: Castles and Cottages.”
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Image Credit: For the Love of Old Houses With four bedrooms and five baths in a spacious 5,459 square feet, the interior of the Parrott-Camp-Soucy House is just as mystical as the exterior. A virtual dreamland of cherry, black walnut, bird’s eye maple and mahogany woodwork, the residence is awash with “craftsmanship and details beyond your imagination,” as noted in a recent real estate listing.
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Image Credit: For the Love of Old Houses The dwelling’s exquisitely refined look is largely the work of Doris and Charles Soucy who spent four years restoring the place upon purchasing it in the 1980s. Of the laborious process, which required “some 20 craftsman to complete,” The Newnan Times-Herald said, “Most of the roofing and porch had to be reconstructed by hand due to extensive water and termite damage” and “the paint throughout the home was scraped to the bottom layer in order to see the original colors used.” The National Trust for Historic Preservation wound up judging the couple’s efforts “best in adaptive use.” Following the renovation, the Soucys proceeded to operate a portion of the residence as a bed and breakfast before putting it on the market in 1993.
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Image Credit: For the Love of Old Houses The pad was last offered for sale at $500,000 in April 2016. It sold just two months later for the full asking price. The stunning MLS images had fans of restored houses absolutely drooling in delight. With 10-foot ceilings, stained glass windows galore, striking fretwork, wide sweeping hallways and a fireplace in almost every room, the residence is the stuff of 19th Century dreams!
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Image Credit: For the Love of Old Houses The impressive interior features a gaggle of gorgeous living spaces including a formal entry foyer, a dining room, a living room, a third-floor bonus room and an updated country kitchen with a breakfast nook and pressed tin ceiling.
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Image Credit: For the Love of Old Houses Outside, the sprawling 3.8-acre grounds are dotted with mature trees, a heated pool and hot tub, a three-car garage with an upstairs storage area, a koi pond, a massive wraparound porch and a two-bedroom, two-bath carriage house.
Considering its ornate architecture, it is no shock the house found its way to the screen. The pad has proved so popular with filmmakers, in fact, that the mayor of Newnan eventually put the kibosh on shoots there in late 2019 following complaints from local citizens and business owners who grew fed up with the multiple traffic closures that productions on the premises routinely caused.
Despite the forced moratorium, the property remains forever immortalized on celluloid via several notable cameos.
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Image Credit: Universal Pictures -
Image Credit: For the Love of Old Houses The exterior of the Parrott-Camp-Soucy House was painted black for its appearance in “The House with a Clock in Its Walls.” Along with the wall and gate that were added to the perimeter of the property for the shoot, unkempt foliage and a plethora of jack-o-lanterns were also brought in to give the place an even spookier look than it has naturally.
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Image Credit: Universal Pictures Only the exterior of the residence appears in the film. The inside of Jonathan and Lewis’ quirky home is actually a mix of two places. The majority of the interior rooms were part of a large-scale set built on soundstages at Atlanta Metro Studios.
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Image Credit: Universal Pictures But the cavernous wood-paneled lair that serves as the workshop of evil warlock Isaac Izard (Kyle MacLachlan) is real. That space is the grand main ballroom of the Candler Mansion in Atlanta.
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Image Credit: Warner Bros. Television The Parrott-Camp-Soucy House also plays the supposed Chicago-area haunted Victorian that Leti Lewis (Jurnee Smollett) purchases in the season one episode of the HBO series “Lovecraft Country” titled “Holy Ghost.”
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Image Credit: Walt Disney Motion Picture Studios And it masquerades as the Crudstaff House and Pencil Museum where Cindy Green (Jennifer Garner) works in the 2012 fantasy film “The Odd Life of Timothy Green.”