Want to drive past the ‘Home Alone’ house? Or the church? A tour of 12 filming locations around Chicago

CHICAGO — The 600 block of Lincoln Avenue in Winnetka appears, at first glance, like any other well-heeled North Shore neighborhood with stately, million-dollar homes on generously sized lots.

And maybe it was before Nov. 16, 1990 — the day “Home Alone” premiered. The Tribune gave the modern Christmas classic, which was shot in just 62 days in the city and suburbs, three stars.

If you’re not familiar with the plot, here’s a quick summary: Kevin McCallister (played by Macaulay Culkin), 8, is left behind by his parents Kate (Catherine O’Hara) and Peter (John Heard) as their extended family (including Kevin’s siblings Buzz, Megan, Linnie and Jeff) fly to Paris.

When Kate realizes Kevin didn’t make the flight, there’s no way to contact him. Phone lines are down due to a snowstorm and cellphones weren’t a common thing in the early ‘90s, remember? What could go wrong?

“We live on the most boring street in the United States of America where nothing even remotely dangerous will ever happen, period,” Buzz (played by Devin Ratray) tells a sister.

Left to his own devices, Kevin must conquer his fear of being home alone — even though he wished for his parents and four siblings to disappear in the first place — and protect his house from two bungling burglars, “Wet Bandits” Marv (Daniel Stern) and Harry (Joe Pesci).

The film was written and produced by John Hughes (“Sixteen Candles,” “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” “The Breakfast Club” and more), who was by then deep into his oeuvre of using Chicago-area sites to illuminate his scripts. This one arrived after “Uncle Buck” (which was also shot here) and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (which wasn’t) but before “Dutch” and “Curly Sue.”

“Home Alone” came smack dab in the middle of a sweet spot for show business in Chicago during the 1980s-90s, and the Illinois Film Office was riding the wave. Big-budget pictures like “The Fugitive” and “The Babe,” plus two television series, “The Untouchables” and “Missing Persons” followed, bringing in record sums of production dollars from 1991 to 1993.

Director Chris Columbus, who previously wrote screenplays for Steven Spielberg (“Gremlins,” “Goonies” and “Young Sherlock Holmes”), completed the mostly Toronto-filmed “Adventures in Babysitting” at age 31 before “Home Alone.” He told the Tribune, “One of the few rules I have is to avoid sequels.” He returned, however, to direct “Home Alone 2: Christmas in New York.” (In case you’re wondering, there have been five sequels.)

After its release, “Home Alone” stayed atop the box office for 12 weeks between late 1990 and early 1991. Its budget was just $18 million, but the holiday classic has grossed almost a half-billion dollars to date.

The movie isn’t perfect. Locals can quibble with the script. Why do all the police officers wear uniforms with the Chicago flag on the sleeve though the commotion clearly takes place in the ‘burbs? Why is Buzz wearing a Maine South letterman’s jacket when his family clearly lives in New Trier Township? And why does Buzz own both a cutout of Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan and a poster of Detroit Pistons point guard (and Chicago native) Isiah Thomas — weren’t they rivals?

Still, watching “Home Alone” has become a must-see each December. With so many of the locations nearby, it’s a quick trip to see them all — which is a great way to pass time with out-of-town visitors. Below are the sites in order of when they appear in the flick.

The McCallister house

671 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka

Whether you call it “Silver Tuna,” as the Wet Bandits did, or the house that “Mac” (that would be 9-year-old Culkin) built, this home from the 1920s is the real star.

The production relied on sets built in the old New Trier West High School in Northfield to create most of the interior scenes, but the popular film made the Georgian-style house one of the most famous on the North Shore.

The “Home Alone” team spent weeks searching for the house that would eventually be used as the main backdrop, Columbus told Entertainment Weekly in 2015.

“We knew we were going to shoot in the North Shore, so we were in the Wilmette, Winnetka, Glencoe, Lake Forest area, so we basically drove around for several weeks until we found the right house,” he said. “And then when we found the house, I took some pictures and sent them over to (producer) John (Hughes), and I remember John saying, ‘This is perfect. This is exactly how I imagined the house.’”

The Abendshien family was approached about using their home in “Home Alone” in 1989, shortly after they purchased it.

“Sometimes I think they just want us to open the door so they can see inside,” Cynthia Abendshien told the Tribune about gawkers in 1992.

Lauren Abendshien, who was 6 during the filming experience, spoke to British TV show “This Morning” in 2020.

“At the time, my parents lived in a different house, actually, that John Hughes was interested in using for a previous film, ‘Uncle Buck,’” she said. “But my parents sold that house and just bought the house that appears in ‘Home Alone.’”

She said her family lived inside the house, which became a place for the actors to unwind, throughout production.

“In order to avoid appearing on screen, we would have to crawl around under the window line from room to room — especially in the evening when it would have been much easier for that to show up on camera,” she said. “So you had to do sort of an army crawl from spot to spot.”

Since the home’s rise to stardom, people haven’t been able to leave the house alone. Selfie-seekers and curious onlookers are common. The Abendshiens sold it in 2012. It was offered as an Airbnb for one night in 2021 as a benefit for Chicago’s La Rabida Children’s Hospital and decorated in the same bold red, green and white ambience as it appeared on the big screen.

A locked gate and security cameras prevent drivers for Airport Express and Little Nero’s Pizza from recklessly entering the property today.

O’Hare International Airport

1000 W. O’Hare Ave., Chicago

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.

“There’s no way on Earth we’re gonna make this plane. It leaves in 45 minutes,” he said.

He was right. It’s at least a 45-minute drive to make the 18-mile trip from Winnetka to O’Hare — not counting additional time needed to check bags, pass through security and then find the gate.

But, suspending disbelief, the 14-odd family members make a memorable scene racing through Terminal 3 before miraculously hopping aboard their American Airlines flight at Gate K-12. (Though the Tribune incorrectly reported at the time that a flight bound for Honolulu would figure into the plot.)

It must have been a short flight, though. The family touches down at another part of O’Hare, which had signage made to appear like a gate at a Paris airport.

Kate sticks around at the guidance of the American Airlines gate agent with a French accent (played by New Jersey native Hope Davis), hoping for another flight out.

O’Hare has appeared in several other memorable on-screen moments because, hey, even stars need to pick someone up or drop them off at the airport. It’s where Joel Goodsen (Tom Cruise) takes his parents in “Risky Business.” It’s where Julianne Potter (Julia Roberts) picks up best friend Michael O’Neal (Dermot Mulroney) in 1997′s “My Best Friend’s Wedding.” And it’s the place where Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) and his son depart in “Sleepless in Seattle.”

The Murphy house

656 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka

Kevin sets out to buy a new toothbrush and notices a van parked in front of the home of his neighbors, the Murphys. It’s Mitch Murphy (the kid who asks a word vomit of questions to two Airport Express drivers about 15 minutes into the plot) who gets mistaken for Kevin and sets the whole crazy journey on its way.

“I thought the Murphys went to Florida,” he says.

Inside, the Wet Bandits are ransacking the house. It’s actually the only property the two successfully navigate — and finally catch up with Kevin toward the end of the one hour, 43-minute comedy.

The house belonged to the Samuel O. Rice family in 1929, who hosted a discussion about Ellis Island for the Glencoe chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution. 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).

Hubbard Woods Pharmacy

940 Green Bay Road, Winnetka

Kevin accidentally bolts from Hubbard Woods Pharmacy without paying for a toothbrush after he’s overcome with fear coming face-to-face with “Old Man” Marley.

The site no longer carries toothbrushes, but could give you a cavity. It’s been home to a Graeter’s Ice Cream shop since 2019. Before that, it was a Panera Bread bakery-cafe. Getting weary from driving around? This is a great pit stop during this tour.

Hubbard Woods Park

939 Old Green Bay Road, Winnetka

No artistic license was taken for this chase scene. The 1.38-acre park is located across Green Bay Road from Graeter’s and across Tower Court from the train station.

The ice-skating rink was real and included up to 25 extras.

“We built a portable rink just for the scene and also rented a Zamboni to keep the ice in shape,” Hughes told the Tribune in March 1990.

The gazebo was demolished in 2015, but a seasonal splash pad, picnic tables and a shelter stand in its place. The park hosts the Winnetka Music Festival each summer.

For fun off set, Culkin and his three stand-ins departed Winnetka for Six Flags Great America in Gurnee.

“We rode everything. There was the Eagle and the Whizzer and the Demon,” he told the Tribune in May 1990. “The Demon has four loops, and under the second one in this big rock. The first thing I thought of was: ‘I can’t scream. I’ll lose my voice.’ Then I thought, ‘Oh, no, I’m gonna get sunburned and it’ll be hell for the makeup lady.’”

Ironically, there was a police car parked in almost the same area as it appeared in this scene — next to the park — on the day we visited.

Hubbard Woods Metra station

1065 Gage St., Winnetka

To escape a police officer who’s chasing him, Kevin darts across the walkway that runs above the Union Pacific-North line tracks. If he were really running back home, the trek would cover almost a mile and take about 20 minutes — plenty of time to reflect on his shoplifting crime.

The station’s name is carved in stone at its entrance along with the initials, “C & NWRY.” That stands for Chicago and North Western Railway. Winnetka is the only North Shore town where the Chicago and North Western railroad tracks are far below ground level and crossed by seven bridges.

Trains are hardly visible from the street; a nice aesthetic touch, though it was done for public safety. It’s the result of public indignation in 1937 over railroad crossing deaths in Winnetka, especially those of two women who were trapped in their vehicle between lowered gates at Pine Street and were struck on their way home from a Halloween party.

The Village Board applied for a federal grant to excavate 3 1/2 miles of trackway and finished the project in 1943.

The station lost its ticket agent in 2014 due to low sales.

Trinity United Methodist Church

1024 Lake Ave., Wilmette

Kevin is chased by the Wet Bandits and somehow ends up 3 miles away. He finds refuge in a Nativity display outside this church, then walks by it again at night.

The Wilmette church was built in 1874, and acknowledges its stardom, stating: “To some, we are the ‘Home Alone’ church from the 1990 movie; to others, we are the imposing Gothic Revival on the corner of Lake and Wilmette. But we are more than movies or architecture, more than stone or mortar. We are your neighbors, even your friends.”

Each October, the church sells pumpkins grown by Native Americans in New Mexico with the proceeds distributed to charitable causes.

The Grand Food Center

606 Green Bay Road, Winnetka

It’s a little tricky to figure out which aisle Kevin grabbed a half gallon of milk, since the original A&P store has been remodeled since, but it’s easy to imagine him being given the third degree at the register.

But really, after he loaded up on laundry detergent, dryer sheets, toilet paper, a couple of microwave dinners, white bread, orange juice, plastic wrap and a package of plastic Army figurines for just $19.83, doesn’t he deserve a pat on the back?

The walk home was a short 10 minutes, but we’re unsure where the plastic bags that contained his groceries gave out.

Northerly Island Visitor Center (Meigs Field)

1521 S. Linn White Drive, Chicago

Chicago’s former third airport moonlighted as one in Scranton, Pennsylvania, during this scene, which was shot in February 1990. It’s where Kate meets twistin’ Gus Polinski (John Candy) and hitches a ride on Christmas Eve to Chicago with his polka-playing band the “Kenosha Kickers” (who were actually The Eddie Korosa Polka Band) in a rental box truck.

Meigs Field was shut down during an overnight raid 20 years ago at the direction of then-Mayor Richard M. Daley, who wanted to convert the area into a nature preserve. The terminal building still stands and is used as a visitor’s center.

Santa Claus’ shack

Chestnut Court Park, Winnetka

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.

Though decorated for the holidays, the shack was just a prop — a fountain now occupies the site.

Looking for a date night with dramatic flair? Have a bite at Tocco, 507 Chestnut St., which overlooks the park.

Christmas Eve family gathering

306 Laurel Ave., Highland Park

Six miles north, Kevin observes a family coming together to celebrate the holiday and trim their tree.

Highland Park Presbyterian Church is next door, but it’s not the one Kevin visits next. Instead he’s back in Wilmette outside Trinity United. The interior scene, where Kevin chats with Marley, was recorded in Oak Park at Grace Episcopal Church, 924 Lake St.

‘Old Man’ Marley’s house

681 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka

Kevin discovers the next-door neighbor he previously feared (played by Roberts Blossom), whom Buzz nicknamed the “South Bend Shovel Slayer,” hugging his granddaughter amid snowflakes on Christmas morning.

Not much of the house is revealed, but the seven-bedroom, six-and-a-half-bath, wood-shingled behemoth has almost 7,000 square feet of living space on about three-quarters of an acre.

Tragedy struck the home in September 1963 when Josephine Vollers, 61, was found dead inside her vehicle while its engine was running inside the garage, according to Tribune archives. Her husband, Edward Vollers, a 60-year-old attorney who helped transfer the Philadelphia Athletics baseball club to Kansas City, died inside the house of a heart attack three months later.

The house hit the market in 2014 for $3.1 million.

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Sources: Tribune reporting and archives; itsfilmedthere.com; imdb.com.

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