Stephen King's mansion in the town that influenced It to host writing retreats

Many of the author's novels have been set in a fictional version of Maine, including Cujo, The Dark Half and Needful Things

Stephen King’s house in Bangor is as creepy as his novels (Getty)

Stephen King's home in Bagnor, Maine is being turned into a writer's retreat after the author and his wife, Tabitha, were granted permission to rezone the mansion as a non-profit.

The building will now become an archive of King's work, where visits will be possible by appointment, and host up to five writers at a time. The family are unlikely to be home while the writers' residencies are ongoing.

City councillor Ben Sprague told Rolling Stone: "The King family has been wonderful to the city of Bangor over time and have donated literally millions of dollars to various causes in the community.

"Preserving his legacy here in Bangor is important for this community."

Bangor planning officer David Gould told New England Cable News: "They did not want the house to become a Dollywood or some kind of tourist attraction. That would being all sorts of people to the neighbourhood, and they have other neighbours that live there."

In King's 1983 essay "A Novelist's Perspective on Bangor", which was made available by the Bagnor Historical Society, King wrote about falling in love with the Victorian mansion and the chilly vibe he and his family got from the house when they first moved in.

"Of course we fell in love with the house we live in, and it has never disappointed us," he wrote. "Have we disappointed it? Disappointment probably isn't the right word. I think it disapproved of us at first. The parlour seemed cold in a way that had little to do with temperature. The cat would not go in that room; the kids avoided it. My oldest son was convinced there were ghosts in the turret towers."

He went on to describe how the house and town influenced his early thoughts for his classic horror novel It, which was published three years later.