The Home Alone house is for sale
The asking price for the redbrick Georgian home, built in 1921, is US$5.25 million
THE Home Alone house, in the Chicago suburbs, is on the market for US$5.25 million, according to a Zillow listing. “It’s a chance to own a piece of cinematic history,” said the listing, which went live last week. The house was last sold in 2012 for US$1.59 million.
The redbrick Georgian home, built in 1921, is at 671 Lincoln Avenue, in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka, Illinois, among the most expensive neighbourhoods in the United States, according to Realtor.com. At 9,126 square feet, the house has four fireplaces, five bedrooms and six bathrooms, as well as an outdoor and indoor hot tub. The listing was reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Parts of the house will be recognisable to fans of the film, a Christmas classic that premiered in 1990 – notably its exterior, but also its foyer and the main staircase where eight-year-old Kevin McCallister, played by Macaulay Culkin, goes sledding.
The film crew worked at the house for four months in 1990, according to an interview, published in Vanity Fair, with the couple who owned the house at the time. The crew built an exterior staircase to the basement on which a burglar, played by Daniel Stern, slips down in the film.
But because most of the interior sequences were filmed on sets built at a nearby high school, much of the house looks significantly different from how it is depicted in the film. In one scene, for example, Kevin is sent to the attic. “The third floor? It’s scary up there,” he says.
In real life, the top floor features a light-filled bedroom as well as a bathroom with a bathtub. The renovated kitchen has an open-floor plan, with a sunroom attached to it, and the basement has a basketball court and home theatre.
After the film opened in November 1990, news of which house had been featured in the film travelled fast. The Chicago Sun-Times reported in January 1991 that about 400 cars pulled up outside the house on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, according to the family that lived there at the time. Ever since, the house has attracted a stream of visitors who come by to take photos.
The filmmakers returned in 1991 to shoot a few scenes for Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Vanity Fair reported.
In 2021, up to four fans of Home Alone were allowed to spend one night at the McAllister family home as part of an Airbnb marketing campaign. Devin Ratray, the actor who played Kevin’s brother, Buzz, welcomed guests into the house. NYTIMES
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