Kenilworth mansion featured in Steve Martin film listed for $2.6M

The six-bedroom Colonial-style mansion in Kenilworth that was used in the 1987 film “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” as the family home for the character played by actor Steve Martin was placed on the market on Thursday for $2.645 million.

Built in 1916, the three-story, 3,576-square-foot house was listed in an agents-only private network. The listing agent, John Mawicke of @properties Christie’s International Real Estate, is also the owner. He and his wife, Jane, bought the home in 2009 for $1.4 million.

“It’s a very light-filled house and very warm, with fireplaces,” Jane Mawicke told Elite Street. “We have had so many parties at our house — it is a house for entertaining, for sure.”

John Mawicke told Elite Street that the home’s draws include having been updated fairly recently and its location in east Kenilworth — which he called a “charming town with great schools” — just a block from Lake Michigan. He said that the couple plans to downsize to another home in town that they own.

John Hughes, who wrote, directed and produced “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” shot most of the movie around the country but returned to his native northern suburbs to film its final scenes. One important note for buyers, Mawicke said, involves whether the home attracts many gawkers wanting to see in person a house that they have seen on the silver screen.

“We get a little bit of the traffic, but it’s certainly nothing like the ‘Home Alone’ house (in Winnetka),” he said. “At Christmas and the holidays, we get a couple little groups here and there, but it’s not annoying.”

The house has 3-1/2 bathrooms, a sunroom, a family room, a first-floor office and a kitchen with custom cabinetry, quartz countertops and Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances.

The home had a $28,256 property tax bill in the 2022 tax year.

Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.

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