If you enjoy waking up to fresh air, chirping birds, and creeping dread, we have great news. You could be the lucky owner of the house where Stephen King wrote one of his most famous—and most unsettling—novels.
King and his family lived at 664 River Road in Orrington, Maine when the idea for Pet Sematary came to him. The busy state route that runs in front of the house had claimed the lives of many residents’ pets. It got to the point where the children of the neighborhood had made a cemetery just for the pets, located in the woods behind the King family's four-bedroom home.
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Even King’s daughter Naomi’s cat, Smucky, was claimed by the busy road. She, too, is buried in the nearby cemetery.
It was the death of the family cat that sparked King's imagination and led to the creation of his nightmarish novel. According to StephenKing.com, King imagined a young family losing the daughter's cat to a passing vehicle. Rather than break the bad news to his little girl, King wondered what would happen if the father "were to bury the cat in a pet cemetery. And what would happen if the cat were to return the next day, alive but fundamentally different."
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This flash led to King wondering what would happen if, instead of the cat, a child were to die out on the road and be buried in the cursed cemetery. That same night, King dreamed of a "reanimated corpse walking up and down the road outside of the house." He knew he had a novel.
The house at 664 River Road sits on three acres of land. It’s a beautiful home, although the eerie echoes of Pet Sematary and the real-life pet graveyard in the nearby woods may be a bit too much for the average buyer. You can check out the listing on Trulia—or snatch it up for the low, low price of $255,000.
Featured photo via Trulia
