Horror's Hallowed Grounds: Friday the 13th By: Sean Clark
Friday the 13th
By: Sean Clark
Sean S. Cunningham was looking to make it in Hollywood. After the moderate success of his 1972 horror film Last House on the Left, which he produced with friend and director Wes Craven, he decided what he really needed was a mainstream hit. He started to follow successful Hollywood film formulas to see if he could hit pay dirt. First he attempted to follow the success of The Bad New Bears with the film Here Come the Tigers but it didn’t even make a dent at the box office.
Then in 1978, when a low budget horror film called Halloween started raking in the big bucks at the box office, Sean realized if done right there could be a lot of money in the horror genre. He studied Halloween very closely but didn’t want to make just another cheap carbon copy like he had done with Here Come the Tigers, although he did borrow heavily from the lesser know Mario Bava film, Twitch of the Death Nerve. But he was able to put a new spin on things; he knew he wanted to have a group of teens trapped at an isolated location and a summer camp proved to be the ideal scenario.
Originally to be titled Long Night at Camp Blood, Sean knew a great name like Halloween would really make or break this film. That’s when he came up with a similar title in Friday the 13th, which would prove to make it a marketable franchise.
Filmed for just over $500,000 in the winter of 1979 in a small town in New Jersey, this little picture launched a new horror icon in Jason Voorhees and to date a total of ten sequels.
Our first location follows the character Annie through the streets of a small town which in reality is Blairstown, New Jersey. She starts at one end of Main Street over the bridge and heads through the tunnel.
It then cuts to Annie walking from what is actually the other end of the same street (Main Street) towards the bridge and tunnel she had just walked through, but of course this is not noticeable in the film because of editing.
Annie then heads into one of the stores. The exterior of the store Annie goes into is located at 26 Main Street in Blairstown, New Jersey.
The interior of the store takes us about seven miles away to the town of Hope. The store was called Hartung’s Store, located at 331 High Street in Hope, New Jersey. At the time of this article the store is vacant. Since I was unable to enter the store, I stood in front of it and took a picture of what it would look like to look out the front window. If you look at the picture from the film you will notice just above Annie and just below the backwards Coca-Cola sign there’s a house across the street that has windows very similar to the famous Amityville house. You can see this same house in my photo taken from the front of the store.
Here is the front of the store that was used for the interiors only.
Here is a photo I took through the window just to show how much different the store’s interiors are today.
After Enos offers to give Annie a lift, they head over to his truck. This is when they meet up with Crazy Ralph. These locations are actually behind Hartung’s Store near the corner of Walnut Street and West 607.
Next it cuts to the truck crossing a little bridge and that bridge is just down a hill behind where Annie & Enos have their encounter with Ralph.
We now move on to Moravian Cemetery at the corner of West 609 and North 655. This is where Enos drops off Annie.
Next we take a trip to the diner where Steve Christy eats before heading back out into the storm. It is the Blairstown Diner located at 186 State Route 94, Blairstown, New Jersey. Sadly they recently removed the famous DINER sign from the top of the building. They have also remodeled the inside adding more seating in the back.
In this next scene we see Ned’s truck heading down Millbrook Road in the Hardwick Township. In the film he is actually heading away from the camp. If you drive from Blairstown to the camp you will pass this area on Millbrook Road, but going in the opposite direction.
Next we see Ned’s truck enter the front of Camp Crystal lake which is actually Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco located at 11 Sand Pond Road in Hardwick, New Jersey.
In operation since 1927, Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco is run by the Boy Scouts of America, in fact the name No-Be-Bo-Sco comes from North Bergen Boy Scouts. The camp is located on private property and they do not take kindly to trespassers, especially Friday the 13th fans. The camp is only in operation during the months of June, July and August which makes you wonder why they wouldn’t offer tours for Friday the 13th fans during the other nine months when nothing is going on and no money is being generated for the camp. What hardcore fan wouldn’t pay a pretty penny to spend the day at Camp Crystal Lake, or even sleep over for that matter? They’re sitting on a potential goldmine and don’t even know it. Even if they only did it a couple times a year I guarantee it would be sold out every time for the ultimate fan experience. Make sure to check out their website at their site where you can even download a map of the camp, which will be helpful to locate the areas I talk about throughout the rest of this article.
The artwork on the actual sign into Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco looks very similar to the Camp Crystal Lake sign. Also the totem pole next to the sign in the film has been moved and it is now located out in front of the Camp Office.
While at the camp, I was able to cover the entire grounds looking for the various cabins used in the film. Sadly it appears that several of them no longer exist. The cabin that Steve & Alice are working on when Steve looks at her drawings is definitely gone.
The Mechanics Lodge at Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco was used for Alice’s cabin in the film where they kill the snake.
Unfortunately the cabin was locked but I was able to take a photo of the inside through a slightly opened window. In the picture from the film you can see a window on the left hand side of the photo. It was through that window the photo was taken.
The pipe that Ned walked across is located next to the boat house.
The log that Jack and Marcie were walking on was right at the water’s edge in between the Price Lodge and the Van Dusen.
The cabin that Ned goes in and meets his demise I believe may be the Sand Pond Lodge. I am not 100% on this, but it is the only cabin that resembles the one in the film. Unfortunately you don’t get a very good look at the exterior of the cabin in the film so there isn’t a whole lot to compare it to. It does have a similar porch, however it appears that the railing may have been removed.
The interior appears to be very similar, as well as the style of bunk beds. The cabin was locked so I was only able to get this one photo through a window. If I am wrong and the Sand Pond Lodge is not this cabin then the one from the film no longer exists.
The building Marcie heads into to use the bathroom doesn’t appear to exist anymore. I’m not sure if this building was actually the shower room or not but the exterior isn’t there anymore.
As far as the interior in the film, it does look different than the existing Shower House that is on the camp today, but I couldn’t get a good enough look because, again, it was locked. I was able to crawl up over the top and get a couple of photos looking down but wasn’t able to see enough to know for sure. If I had to guess I would say that this is a different or new shower house than seen in the film. Here are the pictures for your own comparisons.
The cabin Brenda stayed in also appears to be gone but at least I think I know where it was located. If you look closely on the front of her cabin in the film you will see that there is a sign that reads SENECA. If you also look at the map of Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco you will see an area called Seneca. Today it is just a grassy area with no structures built on it. My guess is that this building once stood there.
The Power House where the generator was kept along with Bill’s lifeless corpse stuck to the door by arrows also sadly appears to be gone.
The garage like building that Alice hides from Mrs. Voorhees in also appears to be gone.
So let’s talk about some stuff that is still there like the archery range. The Archery range is located in the Field Sports Area on the Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco map. You can see they added a storage room at the end of the firing platform.
Next we go to the dock, lifeguard tower and Boat House. These are featured throughout the film as well as in the film’s climax. This area is referred to as the Waterfront on the Camp’s map. For some strange reason they do not include the Boat House on the map but it is located at the Waterfront are. During the off season the floating docks are removed from the water and piled up on the shore. You can see them on the shore and they are still exactly the same today as they were back in 1979. As you can see the lifeguard tower has been rebuilt but is still in the same spot.
Now we move on to the coolest location still in existence at Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco: The main cabin. This cabin is actually called the Van Dusen and it appears to be the oldest existing cabin at Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco.
Just out in front of the Van Dusen is the little gazebo where Officer Dorf put those snot nosed kids back in their place.
If you look in these next two pictures from the film you can see a small pantry connected to the right hand side of the Van Dusen. This is the pantry where Crazy Ralph appears from and also where Alice hides from Mrs. Voorhees later in the film. The pantry is no longer there. However the door that lead into the pantry is still there.
Now let’s take a look at the inside of the Van Dusen cabin.
And who can forget the window that Tom Savini came crashing through? It was a bit tough to get this photo because there was a bunch of stuff packed into this corner. It appears that this cabin is now only being used to store old junk. My guess is with all of the new construction going on at the camp that this cabin would be the next to go but let’s hope that’s not the case.
At the end of the film you see Alice floating along Crystal Lake in a canoe. In reality it isn’t a lake at all but a large pond called Sand Pond. Canoes that look just like Annie’s are still in use today.
I hope you enjoyed this installment of Horror’s Hallowed Grounds. Until next time the hunt continues!
