Home Alone house

This large brick house stands at 671 Lincoln Avenue in Winnetka, a village about 27 kilometres north of downtown Chicago, Illinois. It was built in the 1920s in a colonial Georgian style. It is famous around the world because its outside was used as the McCallister family home in the 1990 Christmas movie Home Alone.

In the film, eight-year-old Kevin McCallister is left behind when his family flies to Paris, and he defends the house against two robbers. The house was used for the outside shots of this film and one of its sequels. Winnetka itself is a quiet, wealthy suburb on Lake Michigan.

The house on Lincoln Avenue

In the 1920s a colonial Georgian house was built at 671 Lincoln Avenue. Today it is known simply as the Home Alone house. Only the exterior was filmed there, so the rooms you see inside the movie are not the real interior. Fans of the film still come to look at the red-brick building and take photographs from the street, though it remains a private home where a family lives.

About Winnetka

Winnetka was first settled in 1836 and became a village in 1869. The name is thought to come from the Potawatomi language and to mean "beautiful place". Its first houses were built along the Green Bay Trail, and railroads soon brought new homes and schools. Today it is one of the wealthiest communities in the United States, with homes designed by well-known architects.

On the globe

The toy globe marks the Home Alone house in Winnetka, just north of Chicago. Zoom in near Lake Michigan to find it.