Oregon’s Timberline Lodge, the iconic hotel used by Stanley Kubrick for the exterior of the Overlook Hotel in the 1980 film adaptation of The Shining, nearly burned down on Thursday night. According to Entertainment Weekly, the hotel — which Kubrick used only for exterior shots for The Shining — caught fire on the evening of April 18th, but emergency services were able to get the fire under control keeping it contained to the roof and part of the attic. According to an earlier tweet, the fire was a 3-alarm fire. No cause has yet been determined and there were no injuries reported at that time.
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“The fire at Timberline Lodge was declared under control at 11:12 p.m. The fire was kept to the roof & part of the attic & didn’t spread any further. Crews are clearing the scene. The U.S. Forest Service will be conducting the investigation with the help of federal resources,” the Clackamas Fire District’s official social media shared.
The Timberline Lodge was built in 1937 and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977. While it has become connected with The Shining, the horror film actually only used the location for exterior establishing shots. The lodge’s website also explains that while Kubrick was asked not to depict Room 217 as was featured in Stephen King’s book so as not to dissuade guests from staying there in the future, it ended up becoming the most popular room — and they reassure guests that the hotel is not in fact haunted.’
“The 1980 cult-classic film The Shining, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, used aerial shots of Timberline as part of its opening scene. Film of the exterior of Timberline Lodge was used for some establishing shots of the fictional Overlook Hotel throughout the movie,” the website reads. “Several other shots in the film which purport to show the lodge, such as those of the hedge maze and loading dock, were taken at Elstree Studios in England, using a mock-up of the south face of the lodge. Kubrick was asked not to depict Room 217 (featured in the book) in The Shining, because future guests at the lodge might be afraid to stay there. So, a nonexistent room, Room 237, was substituted in the film. However, Room 217 is requested more often than any other room at Timberline. Rest assured; Timberline is not haunted!”
The Shining, based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name, follows Jack Torrance, a recovering alcoholic and writer who takes a job as the off-season caretaker of the Overlook Hotel hoping to cure his writer’s block. Jack moves his wife and son there only for things to go off the deep end as a sinister presence pushes Jack to violence and the psychic son gets horrible forebodings from both the past and the future. The film stars Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd.
