LOST Tour: Camp Erdman Assembly Hall Exterior

Aside from Camp Erdman's residential cabins, several other buildings and locations in and around its grounds have shown up on LOST. Prime among these is the camp's Assembly Hall. Both the exterior and the interior of this building were used extensively during shooting. The photo below showcases the hall's stone fireplace and also illustrates its proximity to the ocean. For some geographical perspective -- Camp Erdman straddles a highway; on the ocean-side one finds the assembly hall, a few other common buildings, and several groups of residential cabins (that did not appear onscreen). On the other side of the highway lie additional clusters of cabins, some of which appeared onscreen (see previous posts).

The stone fireplace exterior can be spotted in season 5's Namaste, both in 1973 and in 2007. There is also a nice shot of the Assembly Hall on one of the season 5 DVD's special features.

One face of the Assembly Hall doubled as the exterior of DHARMA's processing center for new recruits. A wider shot of the processing center in its 2007 state is shown on a S5 DVD special feature.

The ocean-facing side of the Assembly Hall (which unfortunately I didn't snap a picture of during our tour) served as the DHARMA infirmary exterior.

Although not part of the Assembly Hall proper, the building immediately adjacent to it (you can see the edge of the Assembly Hall fireplace on the far left of the screenshot below) is also featured prominently in Namaste. It is given a celebratory sheen for 1973 and a spooky vibe for 2007.

LOST Tour: Behind the Barracks

Something magical happened during our visit to Camp Erdman. As much as I enjoyed every stop on the tour, it was always abundantly clear that we were simply visiting locations in Oahu which had been used to film the television series LOST. At the crash beach Oahu residents lay on the beach suntanning. At the Temple our tour group stood in line for photo ops. But at Camp Erdman, for a few short but scintillating minutes, I was no longer on Oahu. It was not 2011. I had moved to The Island. I stood in Dharmaville. It was August 15th, 1976.

The cabins at Camp Erdman back onto a short run of grass and trees which then give way to a range of rugged hills. As I made my way back behind the cabins the sounds of Camp Erdman's young residents (and several intrepid LOST fans) was replaced by the rustling of grass and leaves and the soft moan of the wind. I could see no cars, no antennas, nothing that would suggest I was anywhere other than The Island; with no one else in sight, nothing to contradict my status as a newly arrived member of the DHARMA Initiative out for a stroll on a pleasant afternoon. For several minutes I walked along a thin patch of ground between the cabins and the grass, basking in the illusion, imagining that Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, Miles, and little Ben were just around the bend. Remarkable.

But back the real world. The areas behind and to the side of the cabins have shown up in several episodes, perhaps most notably in the tense scenes in which Keamy holds Alex at gunpoint in The Shape of Things to Come.

In Follow the Leader we get a Hurley-bird's-eye view of the cabins from slightly higher grassy ground.

From Some Like it Hoth we're treated to a sweet crane shot of the area.

Miles is up to his ass in grass as he pays a final visit to The Barracks in The End.

Sweet, innocent mini-Ben swung with his gal-pal Annie in The Man Behind the Curtain.

And finally, the Some Like it Hoth crane shot treats us to a clear view of the hillside that abuts The Barracks.

LOST Tour: Sawyer & Juliet's DHARMA love nest

The home shared by Sawyer and Juliet during their days in the DHARMA Initiative was portrayed by cabin #22 in Camp Erdman.

It was also on this cabin's porch that Ben nervously awaited the Smoke Monster in the series finale.

The cool Smokey-cam shots from The Substitute provided another glimpse of the building.

Kate's approach to drunk Sawyer in What Kate Does shows us a different angle.

Back to DHARMA days where the arrival of Jack and Kate complicates Sawyer's life. In the background Kate stands on the porch of cabin #20.

And finally a couple of other views on cabin 20, from The Other Woman and The Substitute.