The fifth and final season of the Netflix series Stranger Things debuted on Thanksgiving Eve this year. Since then, fans have already been mourning its end. The show has followed the same cast of characters for 10 years, and the audience they entertain has, in a way, grown up with them.
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The show is known for being set in the small, imaginary town of Hawkins, Indiana. However, most of Stranger Things was actually filmed in Georgia, near Atlanta.
Most of the show's sites are open to visitors, such as the Byers' house and the Starcourt Mall. As of late, one site is currently under development after a fan died while taking her own personal tour. But what's scarier? The site she tried to visit was none other than the show's ominous Hawkins Laboratory.
According to reports from WSB-TV, a 19-year-old woman, Leah Palmiritto, was exploring the abandoned building with friends when she fell from the 5-story structure. Police arrived at the scene at around 1:30 a.m. on Friday.
The building is owned by Emory University in Atlanta. Emory University police have taken over the investigation for now.
The History of the Real Life Hawkins Laboratory
The Hawkins Laboratory building has a unique history and has actually been used in several TV and movie projects. Although, Stranger Things is its most famous work. The building, which was originally the Georgia Mental Health Institute, was purchased by Emory University in the '90s. Since then, it has been the filming site for projects like Hidden Figures (2026), Civil War (2024), First Man (2018), and even WandaVision (2021).
A listing of the property describes it as a five-story building with "lobbies, conference rooms, offices, auditoriums, lab and clinical spaces, and a basement with underground tunnels." However, the tunnels were the primary filming location for Hawkins Lab. Eventually, the building is to be replaced with a senior living community, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Georgia Mental Health Institute operated from 1965 to 1997 and served as a state-run psychiatric hospital and research facility. Similar to the Hawkins Laboratory in Stranger Things, the institute's primary purpose would have been scientific research.
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