It’s been a long 5 years for the famous Highland Park home at 370 Beech St. featured in the classic 1986 film (a work of art of this stature is called a film, not a movie) Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. That’s how long the owners have been trying to unload this very uniquely designed home, starting originally at $2.3 MM and then dropping the price 7 times. The most recent list price was $1.25 MM and the deal closed last Thursday at $1.06 MM. I’ve done several posts on this home during those 5 years so if you are interested in a lot of the background on the house you can thread your way back through them starting with my last one: Another $125,000 Knocked Off Ferris Bueller House.
Clearly, not everyone appreciated the unique architectural elements of the home and, based upon the photos I’ve seen over time, it can look dramatically different depending upon how it’s staged – varying from repurposed shipping container to chic oasis. Back in September, when I wrote my last post on this house, the photos didn’t look so hot with most of the rooms vacant. The photos featured in the most recent version of the listing look a lot better. See the slideshow below.
Crain’s ran a nice piece on what the new owners, an investment banker and attorney, plan to do with the home. Here are some of the excerpts:
The couple say they plan to fix it up while preserving its modernist aesthetic…and intend to “update it functionally while retaining its architectural qualities and historical integrity.”
Chris and Meghann Salamasick think of the two pavilions made of glass and steel tucked into the woods as a “historical timepiece reflecting post-World War II utilization of redundant industrial materials”… They are fans of mid-century modern architecture like that commissioned by Francis and the late Ben Rose, the former owners of the “Bueller” house, which sits on a wooded acre on Beech Street.
Crain’s goes on to point out that the fact that the house is constructed as two separate pavilions – “the four-bedroom main house built in 1953 and the smaller building, completed in 1974, that was featured in the movie as the garage” – posed a real challenge for potential buyers. According to Crain’s the new owners are going to manage this as follows:
…the smaller building “will be an integral part of the daily living and working space for the family, although (they) intend to find additional ways to utilize the space and capitalize on its beautiful natural setting.”
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