Mr. Strickland's House

As I continue to share this mini-obsession for Back to the Future, I will jump around to different spots.  There is something about traveling through time, forwards and backwards that fascinates me and millions of others.  That is what created this cult-like following for the BTTF trilogy.

This post will focus on a spot that is shown in the second Back to the Future movie (my favorite).  When Marty and Doc head to 2015 (which isn't too far away from present time) they run into some trouble.  Marty falls victim to greed and purchases a Sports Almanac that documents the scores for all sporting events from 1950-2000.  This would give him the winners that he could bet on and make mucho dinero.  He buys this almanac from a retro shop in 2015 and plans to take it back to 1985 and reap the benefits for another 15 years.  Instead, Doc Brown spots the almanac and talks Marty out of taking it back to 1985 because he "didn't invent the time machine to win at gambling" he "invented the time machine to travel through time."

When Marty abides by Doc's request, he tosses the almanac in the garbage.  Long story short, the Biff Tannen from 2015 finds the almanac, steals the DeLorean and heads back to November 12th, 1955 and gives the almanac to himself 60 years earlier.  This way, the younger version of himself can become rich by betting on winners and brighten his future.  This skews the entire future of Hill Valley and turns the city into ghetto-like ruins.

Marty and Doc encounter this reality when they head back to 1985.  Marty wanders aimlessly through this Hill Valley nightmare and stumbles upon a current newspaper on a porch.  Turns out, this porch belongs to the former Hill Valley High School principal Mr. Strickland. When Mr. Strickland pulls a shotgun on Marty, Marty tries to explain that he knows him from school.  However, we soon find out that the "school burned down six years ago."

Mr. Strickland's house is located down the street from Whittier High (aka Hill Valley High School) at:

12511 Bailey Street
Whittier, Ca

Hill Valley High School

The fictional town of Hill Valley returns in another installment of Back to the Future filming spots.  This time we look at Marty's high school.  In the beginning of the first movie we see Marty race out of Doc's place because he is late for school.  He skates across the street in front of a Burger King restaurant and continues to make his way towards school grabbing onto the back of vehicles and whatever can speed him up.  He skates right on up to the front entrance where Jennifer tries to sneak him past the all-time schmuck, Mr. Strickland.

We also see Marty re-visit his high school in 1955 where he is tries to ignite the flickering flame between George McFly and Lorraine Baines.  If he doesn't succeed in doing this he ceases to exist, so it's pretty important.  He and Doc Brown (who is a hilarious character by the way) head back to Hill Valley High School to drop in on his folks.  Marty is instantly impressed by the graffiti-free and clean appearance of the school and how "they really cleaned this place up."

Many memorable scenes take place in and around this high school in the Back to the Future trilogy.  It turns out that Hill Valley High School isn't located in the city of Industry, but nearby in the city of Whittier.  You can now visit Whittier High School (aka Hill Valley High School) and snap some pictures yourself.  I will post more BTTF Whittier spots in the future as this was the location for the exterior scenes of the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance and Mr. Strickland's house (nearby).

Hill Valley High School is located at:
12417 E. Philadelphia St
Whittier, CA