Creed house

The Creed house is a big old New England colonial, newly sided and insulated, with three large rooms downstairs, four more upstairs, and a long shed that might be converted to more rooms later on. It is surrounded by a luxuriant sprawl of lawn, lushly green even in the August heat. Beyond the house is a large field for the children to play in, and beyond the field are woods that go on damn near forever. The property abuts state lands, and the remains of the Micmac Indian tribe had laid claim to nearly eight thousand acres in Ludlow and in the towns east of Ludlow, with complicated litigation that might stretch into the next century.

Arrival and First Impressions

Louis Creed first sees the house on the evening he and his wife Rachel and their two children, Ellie and Gage, move in from Chicago. The family is tired and tense after the long drive, and the house initially seems overwhelming. Rachel stops crying abruptly when she sees it, and Ellie asks, "Is this home?" Louis feels terrified, having mortgaged twelve years of their lives for it. The house is located on Route 15, a busy road that Jud Crandall later describes as "that frigging road" with no peace from the constant traffic of Orinco tankers, oil tankers, dump trucks, and commuters.

Domestic Life and Tragedy

The house becomes the setting for the family's daily life: Louis works on model cars in his study, Rachel cooks in the kitchen, and the children play in the yard. It is also where the family's tragedies unfold. Gage is killed on the road in front of the house, run over by an Orinco truck. After his death, the house is filled with grief; Rachel finds Gage's Matchbox cars under the couch, and Ellie carries a Polaroid picture of her pulling Gage on a sled. The house becomes a place of mourning, with mirrors covered and the family struggling to cope.

The Path and the Pet Sematary

From the back of the house, a path about four feet wide leads up through the field into the woods. This path, kept mowed by local children, leads to the Pet Sematary, a clearing with roughly concentric circles of grave markers for pets killed on the road. Beyond the Pet Sematary, past a deadfall, lies the Micmac burying ground, a place of ancient power where the dead can be brought back. The house's location at the edge of this wilderness makes it a threshold between ordinary life and the supernatural horrors that follow.

The Final Night

On the night after Gage's funeral, Louis returns to the house alone, having sent Rachel and Ellie to Chicago. He digs up Gage's body from Pleasantview Cemetery and carries it through the woods to the Micmac burying ground. The resurrected Gage returns to the house, kills Jud Crandall and Rachel, and is then killed again by Louis. Louis later sets fire to Jud's house and carries Rachel's body to the burying ground. The house stands empty in the May sunshine, waiting for new occupants who will never know its history.

Narrative Significance

The Creed house is more than a setting; it is a character in its own right, representing the family's hopes, their domestic life, and ultimately their destruction. Its proximity to the road and the woods makes it a place where death and resurrection are constant possibilities. The house is the stage for the novel's central conflict between the desire to keep the family safe and the irresistible pull of the supernatural power that lies just beyond the back field.