NJ Firefighters Battle Fire at 'Amityville Horror' Movie House
By Erik Larsen
Source Asbury Park Press
TOMS RIVER, NJ—An overnight fire has caused damage to part of the “Amityville Horror” house on Brooks Road, according to the township fire department.
The blaze started in the area of a wooden deck in the rear of the property and prompted a major response from Toms River Fire Co. 2 on Water Street after it was reported just after 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to a post on the agency’s Facebook page.
The fire was quickly knocked down within minutes of the quick response from firefighters.
Early this morning at 01:31, Stations 25, 26 and 28(RIC) were dispatched to the infamous Amityville Horror House,...
Posted by Toms River Fire Company 2 on Wednesday, May 12, 2021
The colonial-style house with its gable roof was built in 1920, and was not the scene of the six murders that resulted in the publication of the book, “The Amityville Horror” in 1977, which blamed the massacre on paranormal phenomena.
However, when Hollywood adapted the book into a horror movie in 1979 starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder, the house in Toms River was selected as the stand-in for the actual residence in Amityville, New York.
Set designers built a superstructure around portions of the home to make it look like the Dutch colonial on Long Island, complete with the original’s distinctive eye windows.
In 1981, the house was moved after the filming and positioned to its current location on Brooks Road, rather than toward the corner of Brooks and Dock Street, where a new home was built. A boathouse that was built for the movie remained on the former site.
Two sequels were also filmed at the Toms River house in the early 1980s.
The 3,068 square foot home with its four bedrooms and three bathrooms is assessed at about $1 million.
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