I Found All The Hocus Pocus Filming Locations In Salem (Map + Addresses!)

It’s just all a bunch of Hocus Pocus!! When the girls and I were planning our New England fall road trip, I insisted we spend a night in Salem, Massachusetts. Yes, for the spooky season vibes but mostly so I could live out my Hocus Pocus dreams. 

We spent a morning running around to all the Hocus Pocus filming locations so I had to create this guide for you so you can also find yourself in Salem shouting “Thackery Binx” at the top of your lungs. 

Where Was Hocus Pocus Filmed?

This iconic movie was filmed both on a studio sound stage in Van Nuys (also home to the Office Filming locations btw) and also on-location in Salem. 

Salem is one of the best witchy places to travel to due to the Salem Witch trail history and the over-the-top way the town has leaned into spooky season. Every shop on Essex Street revolvers around the occult, witchy things, vampires and the like. In this post I listed out all the studio scenes for you on top of the locations you can visit in real life. 

When Is the Best Time To Visit Salem?

Obviously, Hocus Pocus is a Halloween movie and it’s the most fun to visit the Hocus Pocus locations during October so you can soak up all the spooky season vibes. 

You can also easily tack on a stop to Salem before or after your New England fall foliage trip! That being said, keep in mind that October is Salem’s busy season. Prepare for tons of crowds on Essex Street and probably other people to compete with while visiting the famous houses and pretending to be the Sanderson Sisters. 

We went on a weekday (Tuesday night through Wednesday) and while there was a lot of people, it was manageable. So I recommend you come see where things were filmed on a weekday and skip the weekend since it won’t be fun. 

Of course, these spots are here year-round so you can absolutely come any other time of year and not have crowds at all!!  Ok, now onto the spots. 

Hocus Pocus Filming Locations Map

I love a good Google Map!! 

All The Hocus Pocus Filming Locations In Salem With Addresses & Tips!

My friends and I woke up at sunrise, put on witchy outfits and headed to Max’s house at sunrise. I highly recommend you dress up or cosplay on your Hocus Pocus tour, it’s just more fun!! I wore this witchy feeling skirt from Pink Lily paired with a black sweater and hat. 

Though, next time, I totally want to dress up like Winnie (I adore Bette Midler and as a ginger I feel like I could pull this off!!)

1. Max And Dani’s House 

Hocus Pocus House Address: 4 Ocean Ave, Salem, MA

This is THE house from Hocus Pocus and it’s the star of the tour! This is also the filming spot you’ll want to visit at sunrise so I wanted to put this first so we can make sure you have a good game plan. 

While the inside of their house was filmed on a sound stage, the outside is very much real. This 1870 built house is absoutyl stunning in real life.

And what isn’t shown on the movie is how it sits literally right next to the water. We walked over the hill to the house and the view took my breath away at sunrise – pretty pastel sky with boats dotting the water. We took some photos and soaked in the beauty of the house. 

Fun Fact, the Hocus Pocus house went up for sale a few years ago for $612,00 (a steal for someone like me who lives in California but that’s another rant for another day). 

Must Know Parking Tips: the city of Salem has blocked off Ocean Avenue for the duration of the Halloween season. This is because in the past, Hocus Pocus fans flooded the residential street with cars, blocked driveways and traffic and were over all annoying.

So, when you go make sure to be super polite. You also can’t legally park on the side streets between the houses of 8am and 8pm. And trust me, there WIL be tow trucks waiting to tow your car the second you walk away. This is why you should visit at sunrise (around 6:45am in the fall) so you can legally park on the streets. You will also have it all to yourself which is a bonus. 

If you are visiting later, park the Forest River Park lot which is paid but a couple blocks away from the house. Or, take a Lyft there! 

2. Thackery Binx’s Village

Salem Pioneer Village Address: 98 West Ave, Salem

I love baby Mcgee as Thackery Binx and while his village scenes feel like something that was filmed on a sounds stage, it was actually filmed around Pioneer Village. 

Pioneer Village is the first living history museum in America and it made the perfect spot to film those 17th century scenes. It’s also literally a couple blocks away from the Hocus Pocus house, making it an easy stop to lump together. 

Sadly, Pioneer Village is only open on the weekends and since we visited on a weekday, we weren’t able to go inside for a proper tour (honestly, probably a good thing since that saved everyone else having to witness me run around screaming “EMILY! EMILLYYY!!”) 

If you visit on a weekday, you can still take a peek through the gate to see the old houses and the village, though next time I visit Salem I want to top by the park on a weekend and get a full tour. 

PS if you love local history, you need to stop by the Peabody Essex Museum as well! 

3. Max Riding His Bike

Bus Stop Address: 85 Washington St, Marblehead

This is a Hocus Pocus filming spot not mentioned in other blogs and videos, but it’s worth a stop since it’s in downtown Marblehead. Marblehead is the bougie, rich town right next-door to Salem and it’s actually where many of the key filming spots took place. 

During the first part of the movie, you see Max biking home from school and he passes by a street and a store called the Bus Stop. That Bus Stop store is still there today! 

4. Old Burial Cementary 

Address: Marblehead

Can we talk about how weird it is for bullies to hang out in graveyards just hoping a kid will pass by so they can pick on them?? 

Jay and Ernie (aka “Ice”) crack me up but also confuse me, not gonna lie. Anyways, it’s pretty easy to find their hang-out spot in the Old Burial Cemetary. You’ll look for the round dome mausoleum and right below it you can find the marble tomb that Jay and Ice are hiding behind, ready to pop up like a Disney villain if a kid happens to bike by. 

Which does happen – after giving Max the nickname “Hollywood”, they steal his shoes and make him bike home barefoot. 

5. Salem Commons

Location: Downtown Salem

The Salem Commons is a medium-sized park just off Essex Street and downtown Salem across from the Salem Witch Museum. It dates back to the 17th century, though back then they didn’t have food trucks and cute string lights that glow orange during October up. 

In the movie, the Salem Commons was used as the backdrop for a lot of transit scenes. This is where Alison gives Max back his note from class and turns him down. (Side note, can we talk about how cool Max is for a teen boy? He has confidence and swagger but not in a toxic way. SNAPS!)

You can find the exact place along the fence by the playground. When I visited, the trees weren’t yet turning orange (boo) but it was still fun to see! 

6. Jacob Bailey High School

Address: 98 South Washington Square, Salem

Phillips Elementary School aka Jacob Bailey High School was a real, actual school building but it closed in 1992, conveniently timed for when Hocus Pocus was filmed that year. Now, it’s a condo building but still looks exactly the same as it did in the movie. 

Located right across the street from the Salem Commons, you can visit this iconic spot and stand behind the fence to look up at the building, just like the 3 sisters did. 

We actually visited at night and in the daytime. I loved both – it’s more beautiful in the daytime, but at night you can pretend like you are actually in the movie and about to battle some witches. 

7. Old Town Hall

Address: 32 Derby Square, Salem

Built in 1816, Old Town Hall is located right off Essex Street and is super easy to visit during your Salem trip. I think we can all agree that the most iconic, memorable scene of the entire movie is when Winnie, Sarah and Mary sing “I Put A Spell On You” at the parent’s dance. 

This is the building it took place in! Well, the outside scenes anyways (the interior was filmed on a sound stage). But you can visit the building and pretend like you, too, are dressed up at Madonna and just finished dancing the night away at the town hall with your friends for Halloween.  

PS – since this is so close to the major tourist sites, it’s best to visit this filming location right away in the morning to avoid crowds and tours. 

8. Allison’s House

Address: 318 Essex Street, Salem (Ropes Mansion and Gardens)

I just love Dani’s line when her and Max walk up to Allison’s House. She says “Eh, rich people. They’ll probably make us drink cider, bob for apples”. (We thought it was ironic since her family is also clearly well off, too). 

There’s a reason Allison’s house is so fancy. It was filmed at Ropes Mansion, a mansion building dating back to the lats 1720’s! You have to pay to enter the house, but the gardens are totally free to visit. 

But, what I got super giddy around, was a sign I read in the Ropes Mansion Garden detailing the history of the house. Circa 1760’s, Nathanial Ropes bought the house and had 3 daughters: Sarah Ropes, Mary Pickman Ropes, and Eliza Orne Ropes. 

These three sisters were unmarried and lived together in the house, creating the garden out back and adding modern amenities to the house such as plumbing. I was tickled when I realized that the Ropes Sisters were the inspiration for the The Sanderson Sisters, though the producers changed Eliza’s name to Winnie in the film. 

Hocus Pocus California & Studio Sound Stage Filming Locations

Hocus Pocus filmed many of the scenes on location in Salem over a span of 2 weeks (that’s why the fall foliage is popping off in every scene, they did it very quickly!!) 

But they also filmed many scenes at Hollywood studio sound stages, or other locations around California And they were tricky, too! Remember that scene when Max talks to a police offer? Laundry and Acraci, a business they are standing in front of, is a real business in Salem but the scene was actually a set. 

I loved how they mad it look and feel as real as possible – even though I did walk a mile out of my way thinking I would actually see the exact street as in the movie. 

• Whittier, California: nighttime trick-or-treating scenes filmed in this town, exact address is unknown. 
• East Whittier Middle School: All of the interior school scenes in Hocus Pocus were filmed at East Whittier Middle School. From Max trolling the witches on the overhead speakers to trying to roast them in the ceramics studio furnace, none of that took place in Salem. It was actually filmed in California! 
• Park Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles: This is where the dance party scenes took place! While the exterior was filmed in Salem at Old Town Hall, the actual dance as 
• Crank House: Located in Altadena, California, Crank House is an old Victorian house that was used to film the interior of Allison’s house! Fun fact, it was also used as the set for Trunchbull’s house in Matilda! 
• Stage 2, Walt Disney Studios: Sadly, the Sanderson Sisters’ house interior and exterior is not a house in Pioneer Village but instead built on a soundstage in Hollywood. The nighttime graveyard scenes were also filmed here, though the moths that fly out of Billy’s mouth were entirely real (no CGI here. Gross, right?) 
• Warner Brothers Ranch Facilities: Have you ever noticed that the Friend’s Fountain was used as a filming spot in Hocus Pocus? It appears at night after the kids think they have banished the sisters. Friends was filmed after Hocus Pocus was, so maybe technically this should be called the Hocus Pocus Fountain instead. 

Hocus Pocus 2 Filming Locations In Rhode Island

I absolutely screamed and danced like a little kid when I heard that Hocus Pocus was coming back for a sequel 20 years later. The team brought back the original witches, starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy, but this time with a new cast of kids. 

In the remake, a group of teens tally bring back the Sanderson Sisters to modern day Salem and have to figure out how to banish them for good. We get a back story on the sisters, learning they were born in 1653, created an enemy with the local Reverend and learned magic from an actual witch in their village. 

During the film, we get to see the sisters deal with even more modern-day problems. If you thought seeing them try and board a bus was funny, wait until they wander around a brightly lit CVS store.  

While it’s not explicitly acknowledged, it’s clear that the Reverend was inspired by Judge Jonathan Corwin who was involved in the Salem Witch Trials. His real-life house still stands and is located right off Essex Street in downtown Salem, but ironically is called The Witch House.

And it looks almost identical to the sound stage built for a few scenes in Hocus Pocus 2. 

But, unlike the original, all on-location scenes were filmed in Rhode Island. You can’t find them while wandering Salem (though, the Witch House is basically the same, so you can pretend there!) 

• La Salle Academy (612 Academy Avenue): This private academy’s interior and exterior were used to film many of the high school scenes in Hocus Pocus 2.
• Moses Brown School: The exterior of this private school was used in Hocus Pocus 2 to film the  high school scene at the beginning of the movie.
• Newman Cemetery (Southwest corner of Newman and Pawtucket Avenues) – This public cemetery, one of the oldest in Rhode Island, is where the scene with Billy Butcherson being resurrected was filmed.
• Benefit Street in Providence: This residential street, known as the “mile of history,” was the filming location for the street scenes outside of Cassie’s house.
• 51 Touro Street and Washington Square in Newport: This public square was used for the majority of the town scenes in Hocus Pocus 2, including the Sanderson Sisters’ musical number, the drag show, the flash mob, and the Olde Salem Magic Shoppe.
• Cranston Street Armory: 310 Cranston Street, Providence,  this historic building, closed to the public, was large enough to build multiple sets for the film, including the woods and the broom-flying scenes.
• Chase Farm: Lincoln, Rhode Island
• New England Studios (Devens, Massachusetts) – This studio was used for filming various parts of the movie. 

Must-Know Tips For Visiting Salem Hocus Pocus Locations

1. Tow Trucks: While visiting the Hocus Pocus House on 4 Ocean Avenue, it’s very important you pay attention to parking signs and make sure you aren’t at risk for being towed. The tow trucks WILL be hovering, ready to tow your car. 

We visited at 7am, and the no-parking hours start at 8am. Around 7:40am we were walking back to our car and noticed a tow truck idling, just waiting to tow cars a block away from the house. 

2. Local Cops Out: October is a crazy time of year for Salem. If you are visiting during spooky season, keep in mind that the city is covered with cops, so mind your speed and drive carefully. 

3. Will Be Busy During October Weekends: If you can help it, do NOT visit Salem on a weekend, especially Halloween weekend. It will be more than a zoo, it will be so crowded you will feel like a sardine everywhere you go. 

Instead, visit on a weekday. We did Tuesday and Wednesday and while there were people out enjoying the city, we never felt overwhelmed and were able to go inside any shop we wanted. This also made it very easy to visit Hocus Pocus filming spots! 

4. Respect Private Places: Hocus Pocus film locations are actually sometimes private homes, museums or parks. This isn’t Disneyland, real people live in these locations or use these facilities. Be respectful and mindful when nerding out on your childhood nostalgia. 

I hope this helps you find the movie sites during your visit to Salem!! I had such a fun time running around this old city with my friends and healing my inner child.