National Lampoon’s “Animal House” is widely recognized as one of the best college movies of all time. But in Eugene, it is more than that. It is a hilarious tour of the University of Oregon campus through the eyes of inappropriate frat boys. Director John Landis brought the film crew to the University in 1978 to create the masterpiece set at the fictional Faber College. Almost all of the buildings used during filming still stand, which means anyone visiting Eugene has the opportunity to retrace the steps of John Belushi, Kevin Bacon and the other cast members as they created the comedy classic.
The movie’s opening credits show two students leaving their dorm to begin the fraternity rush process. The dorm they are leaving is Carson, located at 1450 E. 13th Ave. The characters walk past Johnson Hall, the administration building featured many times in the movie, including the scene where the Delta boys put a horse in Dean Wormer’s office. Johnson Hall is on the same street as Carson, at 1258 E. 13th Ave. The boys also pass the Knight Library and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, which are in the quad just past Johnson Hall on East 13th Avenue.
The outside of the film’s Delta house belonged to a house at 751 E. 11th Ave. that was torn down in 1986. Today, a plaque on the property commemorates the site’s use in the movie. Scenes inside the Delta house, however, were filmed at the Northwest Christian University’s Center for Teaching and Learning, located nearby at 763 E. 11th Ave. This is where the toga party was filmed, along with the scene where D-Day rides a motorcycle up the stairs and the upstairs bedroom scenes. The exterior of the same building was used in the movie as the Tri Pi sorority, where Mandy Pepperidge lives.
The Omega house scenes, both inside and out, were filmed at 729 E. 11th Ave., which the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at the UO currently lives in. Just like in the movie, this house is located close to the house used for the Delta fraternity. Emily Dickinson College, where the boys use a girl’s death to get dates, is actually the UO’s Gerlinger Hall, on campus at 1486 University Street.
The scene where Delta boys hit golf balls at the military trainees takes place on the soccer fields southwest of Hayward Field, which is directly seen behind the men doing jumping jacks.  The Walton dorm complex to the north and Agate Hall to the east can both be seen in the background during this scene.
Other recognizable scenes include Bluto’s zit moment, filmed in the Erb Memorial Union Fishbowl cafeteria located on campus at the southeast corner of East 13th Avenue and University Street, and Pinto and Clorette’s romantic moment in the middle of Autzen Stadium, located on the other side of the Willamette River at 2727 Leo Harris Parkway.
While most scenes were shot on or near campus, a few required the cast and crew to travel a bit. For example, the Dexter Lake Club used in the film is located at 39128 Dexter Road, about 18 miles southeast of Eugene in Dexter, Ore. Also, the homecoming parade that ends the film was really shot in Cottage Grove, a city 21 miles south of campus.