A. James Speyer Photo of 370 Beech St., may be an early shot of the house with a clear stain on the cedar-way cool!
How could I resist writing about the Ben Rose Home in Highland Park, IL? This house is part of Generation X lore! Lines like,"Let my Cameron go..." & "You killed the car," were spoken here. For some of us, it was one of our first glimpses of Mid Century Modern. We were paying attention to the characters, action, the death of a GT Ferrari, but subtly, softly, this home was seeping into our sub-consious.
Ben Rose Home, rear view, built 1953
Ben Rose Home, side view with clear stain
As an adult, I recognize what an amazing place this is! The setting, the clear span that you only get with steel construction, the cedar siding & ceilings making this house warm and Contemporary. It's perfect. And it's for sale. For a song! Well, by San Francisco Bay Area standards anyway. Apparently greatness does have a price in Illinois. 1.5 million...
side view of the pavillion- looks like a Ferrari inside?
pavillion- a true glass box!
drive in house! pavillion's sliding glass walls
livingroom with wicked-cool see through fireplace
bedroom view w/cedar ceilings- a quiet corner in your own MCM treehouse!
The Breakdown:
370 Beech Street, Highland Park, IL mls#08413066, asking $1.5 million
The Ben Rose Home
*Architect: A. James Speyer- protege of Mies Van der Rohe & David Haid *Built 1953, renovated in 1960 *4/4, 4,390 sf, .75 acre forested lot *Two steel and glass buildings cantilevered over a ravine: main house + pavillion with guest quarters *Amazingly large, open rooms with groovy see through fireplace *Glass, steel with cedar siding, post and pier contruction *Four car, heated parking; parking for 6 cars total, circular driveway
Negatives:
Price may be high? Has been for sale on & off since 2009. Just did a price reduction. Might be vacant (from recent photos). With a home like this, vacant is bad- needs regular upkeep! Taxes are a whopping 25K! Yikes!! Hopefully that will go down to around 15K depending on closing price, mere chump change.
MCM homes hate to be empty, they look so sad & lonely. Oh yeah, cool shot of the entrance.
Positives:
The architecture! That pretty much sums it up... Oh yeah, lot looks stunning as well. MAJOR coolness factor: This is Cameron Frye's House! It's part of cinematic history. How can you put a price on that?
Cameron ponders his fate, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, 1986
GT California Ferrari in heated pavillion garage
Cameron, Ferris & Sloane decide what to do next, outside 370 Beech Street, 1986
It took some self control not to click "Schedule a Tour" on Redfin. If only I could figure out how to pay for a ticket to Chicago??...
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