The Real Reason Days of our Lives Burned Down The Horton House

Days of our Lives burned down the Horton House, leaving Doug, Julie, Chad, and the kids homeless…for now. While it looks like Julie plans to rebuild around Tom and Alice’s chair that miraculously survived, the destruction will take a long time to remember. Fans can’t help but wonder, why did DAYS burn down the Horton House?

Goodbye To An Iconic Set

Recently, Susan Seaforth Hayes, who portrays Julie, spoke with Michael Fairman TV. During their discussion, the veteran daytime actress, who is mourning the death of her husband, Bill Hayes (Doug), revealed the real reason why the show ended up destroying the house that served as such an icon in Salem.

“I did not know how big a story was with it,” Hayes said of the shocking fire. “I knew that many years ago, another regime had planned on trashing the set and getting rid of the set because nobody cared about the Hortons anymore. It was stopped by one person, and I was eternally grateful for that. This time I thought, ‘Oh, my goodness! I guess I’ll be meeting people for a cup of coffee at the Horton Square. No home, no roots, no reason to be called in,’ and thinking that’s the end of Julie. That’s the end of Doug and Julie.

“Then, when they began to structure a story around it, I think all of this came up during the writer’s strike,” she continued. “So, of course, I was curious to see how this was going to turn out. I enjoyed the aftermath, because in the aftermath, and a little bit before the fire, if you saw the show, I get to talk a bit about the history of the household and the people in it.”

Of course, while there is a lot of drama in the storyline of burning down the Horton house, there’s also another, more practical reason for setting fire (metaphorically, at least) to the set. “They’ve done everything to make quicker set changes, which is remarkable and very efficient right now,” Hayes explained. Presumably, when Julie rebuilds the house on the soap, in real life, this iteration of it will be designed with that quick set changing in mind. “She’s determined to make the house something that her grandparents would recognize and still feel comfortable in,” the actress said of her on-screen alter ego.

Hayes said she thought fans would understand the emotions of Julie and the others in Salem at losing the Horton house. “I think anybody in America who’s gone through a disaster, and have unfortunately had the disruption of their home, will be sympathetic and interested in how it all turns out…. I think this is the one set that meant a lot to people.”

There’s a lot more to come with the fallout from this storyline. What do you hope to see as the Horton house is rebuilt on Days of our Lives? Let us know in the comments below.