Where Is Hawkins in Stranger Things?
The fictional geography of Hawkins, Indiana — where it sits within the state, how the Duffer Brothers built its sense of place and where the show was really filmed.Hawkins is a fictional small town set in Roane County, Indiana. It is placed in the rural northwest of Indiana in the show's geography, approximately an hour from Bloomington. No real Hawkins exists in Indiana — the show was filmed in and around Atlanta, Georgia, primarily in Jackson, Georgia.
Hawkins, Roane County: The Fictional Geography
The show places Hawkins in Roane County, Indiana — itself a fictional county, though Indiana does have real counties with similar names. The town is depicted as a typical small midwestern American settlement: a main street with a police station, a school, a cinema, a diner and the usual commercial amenities of a community of a few thousand people. Residential streets of modest houses stretch out around the commercial centre. Beyond the town, farmland, forests and lakes create the rural Indiana environment.
Key fictional locations within Hawkins include Hawkins Middle School and Hawkins High School, the Byers house on a wooded lane at the edge of town, the Wheeler house in a suburban cul-de-sac, Melvald's General Store, the Palace Arcade, the Scoops Ahoy ice cream parlour (in the Starcourt Mall, Season 3) and Hawkins National Laboratory — a government research facility on the outskirts of town that the residents largely do not think about.
The Real Locations Behind Hawkins
The physical Hawkins seen on screen is a composite built from multiple real filming locations in the Atlanta, Georgia area. Jackson, Georgia — a small town approximately 55 miles south of Atlanta — provided the central Hawkins streets and many residential locations. The Jackson area's period-appropriate architecture, flat terrain and rural surroundings make it a convincing 1980s Indiana stand-in.
The Hawkins Middle School exterior was filmed at Patrick Henry High School in Stockbridge, Georgia. Hawkins High School scenes used multiple Atlanta-area schools. The Byers house is a real residential property in the Stockbridge area. The Palace Arcade was created inside a real former commercial space in the Atlanta suburbs.
Gwinnett Place Mall in Duluth, Georgia — a largely vacant shopping centre — was used as Starcourt Mall in Season 3. The decommissioned Georgia Mental Health Institute in Atlanta served as Hawkins National Laboratory. Trilith Studios in Fayetteville, Georgia (formerly Pinewood Atlanta) has housed extensive set construction for the show throughout its run.
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