Every Hocus Pocus Filming Location You Can Visit in Salem (and the Ones You Can't)

Every October, thousands of fans come to Salem to walk in the footsteps of the Sanderson sisters. The good news: a handful of the real Hocus Pocus filming locations are still here, unchanged, and you can visit them on an easy afternoon loop. The catch: a lot of what you picture from the movie was never in Salem at all.

Before you plan your pilgrimage, two things almost every fan gets wrong:

1. Hocus Pocus 2 (2022) was not filmed in Salem. Even though it’s set here, the sequel was shot almost entirely in Rhode Island — Newport, Providence, and a 1653 Salem set built at Chase Farm in Lincoln. If you came chasing sequel locations, they’re a state away.

2. Much of the original’s interiors were California sound stages. The 1993 film split between real Salem exteriors and studios out west. You can stand outside Allison’s house — but the party inside it was filmed in Altadena, California. The nighttime graveyard scenes were largely a soundstage, too.

With that straight, here’s what’s genuinely here.

The real Salem filming locations

1. Allison’s house — the Ropes Mansion

The stately home where Allison lived is the Ropes Mansion at 318 Essex Street — a Georgian Colonial that looks almost exactly as it did on screen. Best of all, it’s one of the few locations you can actually experience up close: it’s a Peabody Essex Museum property, and its lush formal garden behind the house is free, open seasonally, and one of the prettiest quiet corners in Salem. (Remember: the interior party was a California set — but the exterior is all Salem.)

2. The “I Put a Spell on You” party — Old Town Hall

The show-stopping scene where Bette Midler brings down the house was filmed at Old Town Hall in Derby Square, Salem’s oldest surviving municipal building (1816). The grand second-floor hall is still used for events today, and during the fall Haunted Happenings season you can often catch programming right where the Sandersons cast their spell.

📍 Old Town Hall — get directions on Google Maps →

3. Salem Common — Max’s walk (and the school)

The green where Max walks with Allison, and where so many establishing shots were filmed, is Salem Common — the historic town park with its white 1802-style bandstand. The old school building Max attends stands right across from the Common (it’s since been converted to private residences, so admire it from the park). It’s the easy, central anchor for a walking loop of the other sites.

4. Max & Dani’s house — 4 Ocean Avenue

The Dennison family home, with its unmistakable rooftop cupola, still stands at 4 Ocean Avenue in the Salem Willows neighborhood and looks nearly identical to the film. Two important notes: it’s a private residence, so please view it respectfully from the street and don’t walk onto the property. It’s a bit removed from downtown — worth the short drive for die-hard fans.

📍 Max's house, 4 Ocean Ave — get directions on Google Maps →

5. Thackery Binx’s home — Pioneer Village

The film’s 1693 opening — young Thackery Binx before Winifred turns him into an immortal black cat — was shot at Salem Pioneer Village (roughly 310 West Avenue), America’s first living-history museum, a recreation of a 1630s Puritan settlement. It’s open seasonally, so check hours before you go, but it’s the closest you’ll get to standing inside the movie’s colonial world.

Just outside Salem: Old Burial Hill, Marblehead

The cemetery where Max first runs into the bullies “Ice” and “Jay” isn’t in Salem at all — it’s Old Burial Hill in neighboring Marblehead (founded 1638), one of the oldest and most atmospheric burying grounds in New England. It’s about a 15-minute drive south and pairs perfectly with a half-day in pretty, walkable Marblehead.

📍 Old Burial Hill, Marblehead — get directions on Google Maps →

What you can’t visit (it was a sound stage)

So you don’t go hunting for spots that don’t exist: the Sanderson sisters’ cottage interior, the inside of Allison’s party, and most of the nighttime graveyard scenes were filmed on studio sound stages in California, not in Salem. The magic of the movie is that it stitched real Salem exteriors together with Hollywood interiors — which is exactly why the town feels so familiar and yet you can never quite find “the witch house from the movie.” (Salem’s actual Witch House is a real 1692 landmark — just not a Hocus Pocus one.)

Make a day of it

Downtown, the Ropes Mansion, Old Town Hall, and Salem Common sit within a few walkable blocks — do those on foot, then drive out to Max’s house and Pioneer Village, and cap it with Old Burial Hill in Marblehead if you’re a completist. Go in October and the whole city leans into it during Haunted Happenings, though you’ll trade the crowds for the atmosphere. The whole day, timed stop by stop with a Hocus Pocus trolley tour at the end, is below.

Plenty of Salem’s walking and trolley tours fold the Hocus Pocus sites into a larger loop of the city’s real history — and while you’re here, the town’s actual story is even better than the movie: read up on the true history behind Witch City, see what’s happening on our Salem events calendar, plan the day with our 2 hours in Salem guide, and browse the full directory of Salem’s sights, tours, and museums. It’s just a bunch of hocus pocus — but the town it was filmed in is wonderfully real.