WINNETKA, Ill. (CBS) — The iconic north suburban home that served as the setting for the 1990 hit holiday movie “Home Alone” is for sale.
The last time the “McAllister house” at 671 Lincoln Ave. was on the market in Winnetka in 2012, it sold for $1.585 million – down from an asking price of $2.4 million. The people who bought it back then are now asking $5.25 million.
According to Vanity Fair, the red-brick Georgian kitchen dates back to 1920. It first gained fame outside the North Shore in 1974 – 16 years before it became the ‘Home Alone’ house – when the newly updated kitchen was featured in the September issue of ‘ Better’ appeared. Homes & Gardens,” according to Vanity Fair.
Vanity Fair reported that then-owners Carolyn and Kully Rohlen redesigned the kitchen so they could host regular soup parties — and grow homegrown tomatoes on a center island.
The Rohlens no longer owned the house by the time it became the “Home Alone” house. John and Cynthia Abendshien moved into the house in 1988 and lived there when “Home Alone” was filmed.
“Home Alone” was released just after Thanksgiving 1990.
Most of the interior scenes were shot on a sound stage in the gym at New Trier West High School in Northfield, but scenes around the main staircase and several interior rooms were actually shot inside the house, the website MovieFone reported in 2012.
The interior design of the house shown in the film was not chosen by the then owners. The filmmakers papered the walls to create a more holiday-oriented feel, MovieFone reported. They also built a tree house that was demolished after filming.
The Abendshiens also talked about their experiences shooting in a 2011 Coldwell Banker sales video.
“For example, we learned that if the snow isn’t bouncing off your shoulders or head, it’s potato flakes blowing in your hair,” Cynthia Abendshie said in the video.
Vanity Fair reported that the Abendshiens holed up in the master bedroom on the second floor of the house while filming took place elsewhere.
Their daughter, Lauren, spoke to the magazine about bringing coffee cups full of sweets from the artisan food service cart to the taping and meeting the stars. The family also saw scenes shot at their home, including one in which Macaulay Culkin’s Kevin skidded down the stairs in the house and out the front door, Vanity Fair reported. The magazine pointed out that it actually involved a ramp on the railing and a stunt double, rather than Culkin himself.
Writer and producer John Hughes — who died in 2009 at age 59, was born in Lansing, Michigan, and grew up in a suburb of Detroit — but moved to Northbrook with his family at age 12. The Chicago area and in particular the North Shore suburbs.
In addition to the house “Home Alone”, Samantha’s house in “Sixteen Candles” is located at 3022 Payne St. in Evanston, Ferris Bueller’s high school is actually Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook, and the high school in “the Breakfast Club” was actually Maine North High School in Des Plaines – which was already closed when that movie was filmed and is now used as a district headquarters for the Illinois State Police and offices for other government agencies.
“John Hughes had a real interest in filming in community settings. I understand that he grew up on the North Shore and really wanted his sets and backgrounds to have a real world; a real neighborhood and a real home atmosphere,” John Abendshien said in the Coldwell Banker video from 2011.
It was the Abendshiens who sold the house in 2012 to the current owners, who in turn are now selling the house themselves.
In 2021, Airbnb also rented the house for one night in December.
