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Briefly listed on Airbnb in early December, the suburban Chicago home of the McCallisters offered a one-night stay to die-hard fans, accommodating up to 4 people for a mere $25/night (plus taxes). For the first time in over 30 years, the Home Alone house opened up to the public in 2021. For a very limited time, people could book a short stay at the iconic holiday house. If you’re wondering where the Home Alone house is in real life, how much it costs, or how it looks like nowadays, here’s a complete history.
Can You Visit the House?
Like Rockwell, Cauley used saturated greens, reds, and golds to stand out against the white fluffy snow. “I thought of it like a flip-book, where use of color orchestrated throughout would give the film a warm feeling,” says Cauley. In the film, Kevin sets elaborate traps in order to catch the burglars attempting to break into his home. Tax records show that the Winnetka, IL house is indeed owner-occupied, but we haven’t managed to find any information about the residents of the iconic movie house. Story-wise, the action is also set in Chicago and the famous Christmas market in Parc St. Mark will be one important location. Even without making an appearance in a massively successful movie, a suburban five-bedroom home in the Chicago metro area doesn’t come cheap.
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The Abendshein family also got to interact with Culkin and the other cast members from time to time. Hughes called the place “perfect” and that it was how he imagined the Home Alone house would look like. She adds that the "new owners are very private" and hopes that "Home Alone" fans will respect that. The kitchen where the family gathers to eat pizza before things start to go haywire for our young protagonist looks very similar to the kitchen in the actual house. "This magnificent staircase greets you as you enter the home, but it's really not suitable for suitable for sledding or tobogganing," Hopkins says in the video she shared with Insider. The Abendshiens sold the home to the current owners in 2012 for $1.5 million, Chicago Tribune reports.
Where was ‘Home Alone' filmed? Iconic film's suburban ties go beyond Winnetka home - NBC Chicago
Where was ‘Home Alone' filmed? Iconic film's suburban ties go beyond Winnetka home.
Posted: Sun, 17 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
The 1990 hit movie saw Macaulay Culkin play Kevin McCallister
We watch it multiple times throughout the holiday season,” Silvers tells AD. Following the release of Home Sweet Home Alone in 2021 (the sixth sequel to the original), Airbnb reopened the doors to the home. While the Airbnb experience is no longer on the table, you can stream the original Home Alone, Home Alone 2, and the rest of the sequels on Disney+. The last known owners of the red-brick, Georgian-style home were John and Cynthia Abendshien, who were still living here while Home Alone was being filmed.
'Home Alone 2: Lost in New York' townhouse on sale for $6.7 million - USA TODAY
'Home Alone 2: Lost in New York' townhouse on sale for $6.7 million.
Posted: Thu, 21 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
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As we’ve mentioned above, a Home Alone remake was released in 2021 and a big part of it was filmed in Canada. Having such lucrative careers means the two could easily afford the 5-bedroom spread in the popular Chicago suburb. Her trade also explains why there were so many mannequins in the house for Kevin to use in the party scene. The general consensus is that Peter McCallister, Kevin’s dad, was a prominent businessman (with some sources even suggesting he was a day trader), while Kate McCallister, the mom, was a fashion designer.
Where was Home Alone filmed? The house and all the locations
Where would we be without those energetic civic boosters that built Los Angeles? The prolific Charles Fletcher Lummis founded the Southwest Museum, was an editor at the Los Angeles Times, and still managed to design this house (the name of which means “the Sycamore” in Spanish) on the banks of the Arroyo Seco. Its exterior is made almost entirely from river rock and the interior is heavily influenced by Pueblo Indian dwellings. Fans of today’s DIY movement will appreciate the rustic Craftsman charm of this home, which is furnished with hand-crafted wood pieces; it’s interesting to see how closely modern-day bohemian design mirrors that of Lummis House. The Historical Society of Southern California is now headquartered here, and it holds several Sunday afternoon programs a year, as well as an annual holiday open house in December.
This is the location of the multi storied McCallister house, which serves at the playground for Kevin’s creative home defense traps. The Murphy house, where the mouthy young Mitch Murphy lives is also located nearby at 656 Lincoln Avenue. The filming for ‘Home Alone’ took place both on location and on set in a number of venues across the state of Illinois, including Chicago, Winnetka, Highland Park, and Oak Park. Principal photography began in February of 1990 but was wracked with production issues after distributor Warner took issue with the film’s ballooning budget. However, 21st Century Fox stepped in with principal photography concluding in May 1990. At the time Home Alone was filmed, the Home Alone house was owned by the Abendshein family.
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And if you're looking for a unique holiday activity, but not wanting to travel far, you can actually see the home in person. While not currently open to visitors, the magnificent abode is located in north suburban Winnetka, specifically at 671 Lincoln Ave. There are few, if any, holiday movie homes more iconic than the one featured in the Christmas-time classic "Home Alone." John Hughes loved Chicago, and according to the same Netflix special, he also filmed Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Uncle Buck at the abandoned high school.
671 Lincoln Avenue instantly became a destination for fans of the movie, with hoards of tourists flocking to the home hoping for a little taste of movie magic. But it wasn’t the McCallisters that had to put up with the newfound attention—it was the Abendshien family, who owned the home. “We would have not believed back then that there would be sightseers coming to look at that house for years afterward,” John Abendshien said in an interview with Vanity Fair. Last sold in 2012 for $1.585 million, the Home Alone house is now worth north of $2 million — with real estate websites like Zillow, Realtor.com, and Redfin estimating its worth at around $2,300,000.
The iconic suburban home also has a large kitchen, a detached double garage, and a greenhouse. The Abendshien family was still living at the house while they were filming Home Alone — which took around 4 to 5 months to shoot. In the listing, Kevin’s brother Buzz, who also appears in the Disney remake, will be serving as the “host.” It was a one-time event only, so the house is currently not available for rent. The foyer and stairs look almost identical to how they appeared in the movie over 20 years earlier.
So get off the beaten museum track and check out these landmark architectural homes, all within a few mile radius and (mostly) open to the public. Though its skyline will never measure up to the likes of New York or Chicago, Los Angeles has carved out its own architectural identity. Look below the glassy skyscrapers and you'll find Art Deco high-rises in Downtown Los Angeles, craftsman bungalows in Pasadena and envious estates along the hills and beaches.
The home itself was built in 1920 in the Georgian colonial style—perfectly symmetrical. According to Zillow, the home now boasts 5,398 square feet, 10 bedrooms, and 5 baths. The gorgeous, warm interiors of the Home Alone house look authentic, but they're not from that Winnetka mansion. Instead, according to the Netflix special, the film's indoor scenes were shot at New Trier Township High School, an abandoned school building with enough space for an entire makeshift sound stage.
In September 1938, the lovely four-bedroom, two-bath colonial on a 100-foot lot was listed for sale in the Tribune for $12,000 (or about $261,000 in today’s dollars). After an overnight power outage causes the extended McCallister family to oversleep, Uncle Frank (played by Gerry Bamman) makes a wise and brutally honest observation. She said her family lived inside the house, which became a place for the actors to unwind, throughout production. "A red dining room became the in-style trend of the 1990s. My decor and wall-covering choices for Home Alone changed the color palette of the nation for the upcoming decade," she added. At the time, real-estate agent Marissa Hopkins – who worked with the Abendshiens on the sale – posted a YouTube video showing off the interiors in all their glory.
Filming for certain scenes in ‘Home Alone’ also took place on location across various venues in Illinois. Winnetka is one of the wealthiest regions in the entire United States in terms of household income, and with its placid suburban character is the ideal backdrop for a movie like ‘Home Alone’. The region has also served as a filming location for several other high profile Hollywood movies including ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’, ‘Ocean’s Twelve’, ‘Meet the Parents’, and ‘Sixteen Candles’.
The green strip that divides Chestnut Court in front of Winnetka Town Hall is where Kevin pleads with “Santa Claus” to return his family and is rewarded with three green Tic Tacs. Trains are hardly visible from the street; a nice aesthetic touch, though it was done for public safety. To escape a police officer who’s chasing him, Kevin darts across the walkway that runs above the Union Pacific-North line tracks.
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