Ferris Bueller House: Tour to Iconic $1.06M Glass Home

If you love architecture and classic movies, the Ferris Bueller house belongs on your must-see list. Officially called the Ben Rose House, this striking modernist glass home sits in Highland Park, Illinois, a quiet Chicago suburb about 25 miles north of the city.

Built in 1953, the property spans approximately 5,300 square feet across two steel-and-glass buildings on a wooded 0.75-acre lot. The main house has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, while the separate glass pavilion adds a kitchenette and 1 additional bathroom. It sold in 2014 for $1.06 million. A true architectural and cinematic icon.

Picture a still autumn morning in Highland Park. The trees around the ravine are turning gold. The glass walls of the Ben Rose House reflect the canopy above like a mirror. Inside, it is quiet. No Ferrari revving. No teenage chaos. Just clean lines and a mid-century masterpiece sitting right where it has always been. The new owners restored it lovingly, and today it sits private and peaceful — known to the world but hidden from it all at once.

What Is the Ferris Bueller House?

The Ferris Bueller house is the Ben Rose House — a privately owned modernist home in Highland Park, Illinois. In the 1986 film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, directed by John Hughes, it plays the home of Cameron Frye.

His father’s prized 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder is kept in the glass pavilion before it famously crashes through the glass wall into the ravine below.

The house was selected personally by Ned Tanen, a Ferrari collector and studio executive who knew the Rose family. Textile artist Ben Rose and his wife Frances had lived there since 1953.

Ferris Bueller House Location

• Address: 370 Beech Street, Highland Park, Illinois 60035.

From downtown Chicago, take I-94 North and exit at Lake Cook Road heading east. Then head north on Green Bay Road, turn east on Roger Williams, north on St. John, and east on Beech Street to number 370. The home sits above a wooded ravine, naturally hidden by mature trees.

You would drive right past it if you did not know exactly where to look. As you can see in the photo, the house barely announces itself, a low, flat glass structure pressed into the landscape, with a separate garage pavilion sitting quietly to the right. The gravel lot in front is the only giveaway.

Ferris Bueller House Tour: Let’s Go Inside

I drove up from Chicago on a grey October morning with Marcus. We parked on Beech Street and walked the perimeter slowly. Even from the outside, you feel the weight of this place. The gravel, the trees, the flat roofline disappearing into the canopy. I had seen the film a dozen times.

But standing here in person was different. It was quieter. More real. Room by room, moment by moment, I studied how space shapes emotion — something I often write about on OpinoHome. I’m Afshin Hatami, and this house reminded me why thoughtful design always tells a story.

Grand Entrance

There is no grand foyer trying to impress you. Instead, the Ben Rose House offers something rarer: a seamless transition from outside to inside. Glass walls dissolve the boundary between the ravine and the interior. The steel structure is fully exposed — precise and beautiful in its honesty.

Natural light floods every corner. The living room alone spans 25 by 40 feet, with plate glass windows on three sides. Walking in felt less like entering a house and more like stepping inside a carefully composed photograph. The trees, the sky, the ravine — all framed perfectly through glass on every side.

Ferris Bueller House Interior — Bedrooms

The main house holds 4 bedrooms. They are not oversized by modern standards, but each one sits inside the landscape rather than apart from it. Glass walls bring the wooded ravine view into every room.

The master bedroom carries the same clean DNA as the rest of the house — minimal detail, exposed structure, a direct line of sight into the trees. Natural cypress siding and ceilings bring warmth to what might otherwise feel too stark.

Privacy is handled by vegetation and smart placement rather than blocking out the world. Sleeping here must feel like camping in the most elegant possible way.

Bathrooms

The main house has 3 full bathrooms — not 4. The pavilion adds a separate bathroom of its own, bringing the total across the full property to 4 bathrooms. This is confirmed by the 2014 MLS listing, which clearly notes: Main house — 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms. Pavilion — kitchen and bath.

The bathrooms follow Speyer’s same principles: clean materials, no unnecessary ornamentation, thoughtful proportion. During the 2017 renovation, fixtures were updated while the overall character was preserved. The pavilion bathroom serves the separate guest structure, making it a fully self-contained unit.

Living Spaces

The living areas flow openly from one to the next. No heavy walls interrupt the space. The 25 x 40-foot main living room — with glass on three sides — is the heart of the home. Ben Rose was a textile artist, and the original home was built to live with art.

Clean walls, abundant natural light, and a ravine connection made it a perfect gallery. Unlike the bold, estate-style layouts you might see in a feature like the Kyle Richards House, this home keeps everything grounded, intimate, and architecturally disciplined. Today, the space has adapted to family life without losing its bones. The open plan works as well for a family in 2025 as it did for the Roses in 1953.

The Kitchen

The MLS listing notes the kitchen as an eating-area table-space style at main level — open and integrated into the living space, consistent with the modernist open-plan philosophy.

Vinyl flooring was noted in the kitchen at the time of sale, though the 2017 renovation updated the interior throughout while respecting the home’s architectural identity.

The pavilion includes its own kitchenette, making it fully self-contained as a guest unit. The kitchen is practical and restrained — exactly what you would expect from a home that puts architecture first.

The Glass Pavilion — Special Spaces

This is the room the world came to see. The glass pavilion — designed by David Haid in 1974 — was built to showcase Ben Rose’s sports car collection. It is a rectangular glass box, steel-framed and elevated on pylons over the ravine.

In the film, sugar glass temporarily replaced one wall panel so the Ferrari could crash through it. After filming, the original glass was restored. Crucially, the pavilion holds 4-car interior parking, not two as some sources suggest.

While celebrity car garages like the Mark Wahlberg House lean toward grand scale and luxury finishes, this pavilion is about purity of structure and transparency. Today it functions as a guest house with kitchenette and bathroom. But for every visitor, it will always be Cameron’s garage.

Security and Privacy

The Ben Rose House is entirely private. Mature trees and the ravine topography screen it from the street. The 2017 renovation added a 15-foot underground trench beneath the main house, now a hidden garage, children’s play space, storage, and laundry room. Its subterranean design leaves the exterior completely unchanged.

You see exactly what Speyer designed in 1953 when you stand on Beech Street. No additions visible. No disruptions to the original silhouette. Just glass, steel, cypress wood, and trees, exactly as it has always been.

That level of thoughtful privacy rivals secluded estates such as the Greg Biffle House, where landscape and positioning do much of the protective work.

Ferris Bueller House Architect: Who built the house?

The main house was designed by A. James Speyer in 1953. Speyer trained directly under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe — the architect behind the Farnsworth House and the Illinois Institute of Technology campus. The influence is undeniable. Steel frames. Floor-to-ceiling glass.

A building that frames nature rather than fighting it. Both structures are elevated on pylons above the ravine. In 1974, Speyer’s own graduate student David Haid added the glass pavilion specifically to display Ben Rose’s exotic car collection. Together, the two buildings form a complete modernist statement considered to be Speyer’s finest residential work.

When I first stood in front of this property with my friend Marcus — an architecture writer — he turned to me and said: this is not a house. It is an argument. He was right. Every design decision here argues for honesty over ornament. It is a building that teaches you something just by standing still.

Who is the Owner of Ferris Bueller house?

The famous Ferris Bueller house, officially known as the Ben Rose House, is owned by Meghann and Christopher Salamasick. They bought the property in 2014 for $1.06 million. The home is located in Highland Park, Illinois.

The couple wanted to protect and restore the modern glass design. The house was first built in 1953 for textile artist Ben Rose and his wife, Frances. In 1974, architect David Haid added the glass pavilion.

The home became famous after appearing in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It has been a local landmark since 1987.

How Much Is the Ferris Bueller House Current Price?

The Ben Rose House was listed at $2.3 million in 2009 and sat for years without a preservation-minded buyer. It was briefly placed on Landmark Illinois’ endangered buildings list. In 2014, it sold for $1.06 million, well below ask — to Chris and Meghann Salamasick, who completed major restorations in 2017.

As of 2025, the home has not been relisted. Given its growing cultural status, landmark designation, and North Shore market appreciation, its current estimated value is likely well above the 2014 sale price.

Is that Ferris Bueller House Listed for Sale — History

The path to the 2014 sale was long and difficult for preservationists. The home sat at $2.3 million for years while prospective buyers repeatedly proposed tearing it down. Landmark protections made demolition legally complex, but the price made preservation financially unappealing.

The eventual $1.06 million sale, documented by Realtor.com as a five-year negotiation, finally put the home in the right hands. The Salamasicks completed renovations in 2017 and have lived there privately since. The house has not come back to market.

Additional Properties of Ferris Bueller

Let’s have a look at some of the additional properties of Ferris Bueller.

Ferris Bueller House Illinois: Chicago Area Filming Locations

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was filmed across the entire Chicago region. The Ben Rose House anchors the film in Highland Park, but John Hughes used the city itself as his playground.

The Art Institute of Chicago features prominently, Cameron stares at Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte in a scene iconic in its own right. The downtown parade scene was shot during a real Chicago festival.

Willis Tower’s (then Sears Tower) Skydeck appears as the trio look down at the city below. Hughes, who grew up in the Chicago suburbs, used the whole region as a love letter. The Ben Rose House was just one chapter of it.

Ferris Bueller House Long Beach: Clearing Up the Confusion

Some websites place the Ferris Bueller house in Long Beach, California. That is incorrect. The house in the film is definitively the Ben Rose House at 370 Beech Street, Highland Park, Illinois. There is no California location connected to this property.

The confusion likely comes from misattributed fan content circulating online. If you have read anything placing it in Long Beach or anywhere in California, that source is wrong. Highland Park, Illinois, full stop.

Ferris Bueller House Reviews: What Visitors and Fans Say?

Because this is a private residence, there are no formal visitor reviews. But the architectural and film communities have been consistently effusive. Critics describe it as one of the finest examples of residential modernism in the American Midwest.

The 2017 renovation was praised by preservation groups for its restraint and sensitivity to the original design. Online, the house inspires reverence, architecture fans make the drive from Chicago just to stand on Beech Street and look. The consensus is clear: the longer you look at this house, the more you respect it.

Conclusion

Leaving the Ben Rose House, even just through a screen, stays with you. A 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom, 5,300 square feet glass masterpiece on a wooded Illinois ravine, built in 1953 and still as sharp as the day Speyer drew it. This is not a house that demands attention through size or excess.

It earns it through precision, patience, and a commitment to one idea executed flawlessly across seven decades. The film gave it a global audience. The Salamasicks gave it a future.

And every visitor who stands on that gravel drive and looks up at those flat rooflines disappearing into the trees gets to take a little piece of it home. That is what great architecture does. It stays with you.

FAQs

Q. Who built the Ferris Bueller house?

The Ferris Bueller house was designed in 1953 by architect A. James Speyer, inspired by modern International Style principles.

Q. Is the Ferris Bueller house open to the public?

No. It is a private residence. Visitors can only view it from the street.

Q. Where is the Ferris Bueller house located?

It is located at 370 Beech Street in Highland Park, Illinois, about 25 miles north of Chicago.