Oliver Springs, Tennessee
This is the 400 block of Main Street in Oliver Springs,
Tennessee. This picture was taken in October 2005. Notice the words
"Olga Coal Company" painted on the building. Shots along this street
became downtown Coalwood in the movie. The building shown was the Coalwood
Big Store during the movie. The interior of the store was decorated to
look like a real 1950s store. The movie contains shots filmed both inside
and outside this building.
Oliver Springs Filming
Locations
Charles R. Tichy is an archeologist with the Tennessee valley Authority (TVA)
in Knoxville and a resident of Oliver Springs, Tennessee. He was also in
the movie as an extra and played both a townsperson and a miner. Mr. Tichy
has collected a wealth of information about the filming of the movie October
Sky, and he has graciously allowed us to reproduce some of his material.
The sheet below summarizes the role that the town of Oliver Springs, Tennessee,
played in the movie filming.
Mr. Tichy has also assembled a large collection of October Sky movie
props and photographs. Some of these can be seen through the storefront window at
107 Roane Street in Oliver Springs. (This is a temporary location.)
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OLIVER SPRINGS
Sites in the Filming of
ROCKET BOYS (OCTOBER SKY)
Charles R. Tichy
BUILDINGS USED IN THE FILMING
1. Olga Coal Co. general store, 430 Main St., built as the Sienknecht
general store.
2. Union Hall, 410 Main St., built 1907 as a bank.
3. Miss Riley’s (Laura Dern) house (interior filming), 117 Roane St., once
a small hotel. 4. Miss Riley’s house (exterior filming), Kingston Ave. 5. Hickam house (interior filming), 110 Roane St., former J. S. Keebler
home.
Hickam house exterior scenes use house in Petros.
6. Hickam house basement, set built in barn behind Parnell house, 315 West
Spring St.
STREET SCENES IN THE FILMING
7. Main St.: coal miners to and from mines, general store scenes, union
hall scenes, Greyhound Bus scenes. 8. Roane St.: Rocket Boys pushing their disabled car. 9. Stone Alley: Homer looking for Quinten’s home in War. 10. Homer visiting Miss Riley at her home. 11. Rail road with steam locomotive.
SUPPORT FACILITIES
12. Extras holding building. 13. Actors and crew food concessions. 14. Trailer lot for actors, make-up and costume. 15. Antique auto parking lot.
OTHER
16. Pre-movie auditions. 17. Temporary movie prop and photograph window
exhibit, 107 Roane St. |
This is 430 Main Street in Oliver Springs. Today in 2006, the building is home to an antique store. (None
of the set decorations from the movie remain inside the store.) The store
is:
Sienknecht's Antiques
430 Main Street
P.O. Box 89
Oliver Springs, TN 37840
(865) 435-5775
Near the beginning of October Sky, there is a shot of two
men sitting on a bench outside the Big Store as a steam locomotive rushes by.
The men would have been sitting on a bench outside the building shown, and the
train would have been on these railroad tracks.
This is a photo of the interior of Sienknecht's Antique Store taken in 2006.
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Remember when the miners voted to go on
strike and came rushing out of the Union Hall into the rain? Here is
the building -- at 410 Main Street. |
This is the inside of the building at 410 Main Street. In the movie,
this is where the miners were meeting when they voted to go out on strike.
Today the shop is a sewing shop. (Notice that they also sell copies
of the movie October Sky. You can see one on the counter in the
lower right of the photo!) None of the set decorations from
the movie remain inside the store. |
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This photo was taken through the store window at 107 Roane
Street in Oliver Springs. These are some of of the October Sky
props from Charles Tichy's collection. In this picture, we can see
the final rocket shot off in the movie, a United Mine Workers seal, Miss
Riley's hospital bed, a display used in a science fair and more. |
107 Roane Street is the store on the right. You can see a "Rocket Boys"
sign in the window.
This house is at 110 Roane Street in Oliver Springs. The interior shots of
Homer's house were filmed here. (The exterior shots of Homer's house were
filmed in Petros.)
This photo was taken on Roane Street. You can see the railroad track at
the end of the street. That's where Main Street and Roane Street
intersect. For a film crew, it's always best to get filming locations as
close as possible. Sometimes they can film one scene and turn around and
shoot an entirely different scene. The less they have to move cast, crew
and equipment, the better. For example, within 200 yards of this spot,
these scenes were filmed:
Interior Big Store [Main Street]
Exterior Big Store [Main Street]
Coal Train Passing Downtown Coalwood
[Main Street]
Union Hall [Main Street]
Boys pushing disabled car [Roane street]
Interior of Homer's House [Roane Street]
Exterior of Miss Riley's House [Roane
Street]
Homer's Looking for Quentin's House
[Stone Alley off of Roane Street]
Other buildings Main Street were also painted for the movie.
The 400 block of Main Street looking towards the railroad tracks. The
Union Hall is the building behind the billboard. The Big Store is the big
brick building next to the railroad track.
Click here for a pdf map of
downtown Oliver Springs.
The map was furnished by Charles Tichy.
Links
Anderson County, Tennessee, Community Welcome Center
www.yallcome.org
Oliver Springs Historical Society
www.oshistorical.com
