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The exterior of the house was filmed on what's called Brownstone Street at Universal Studios. Fans of Home Alone can visit Brownstone Street in the Universal Lots, and it still looks the same. The Empire Diner is probably the most famous diner in the world, thanks to its numerous appearances in movies and television shows. It briefly pops up in Home Alone 2 during the montage of Kevin sightseeing around New York. Home Alone is a movie fans watch when feeling nostalgic, and this great scene is one reason why. He immediately hopped into a taxi and began to take in the sights, which included sticking his head out the window while traversing the iconic Queensboro Bridge.
Home Alone and its sequel, Home Alone 2, continue to be some of the most popular Christmas movies to watch each year. The story of Kevin McAllister is always a feel good one that reminds audiences of the joy and excitement of celebrating Christmas as a child. When comparing the main locations of Home Alone 2 to what they look like today, it turns out that some look almost exactly the same, while other buildings aren't actually in New York City.
LOCATION DETAILS
Everything about the film, including the hilarious performance of villainous duo Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, the charming Macaulay Culkin, and the memorable soundtrack by the legendary John Williams is iconic. Other filming locations include the World Trade Center, the New York Subway and Central park, while in Chicago, scenes were shot in the Hilton Hotel and at O'Hare International Airport. In an attempt to prevent Marv and Rob from robbing the toy store, Kevin lures the two criminals to one of Home Alone 2’s final filming locations—his Uncle’s brownstone. The treehouse where Kevin escapes to during the film’s climax was constructed especially for the movie.
In Central Park, Kevin finally meets with the woman referred to as “Pigeon Lady” that the story has been building up as a potential villain. To both Kevin’s surprise as well as the viewer’s, the lady isn’t a villain at all. A bond forms between the two and we find out who the lady really is. They then visit another highlight among Home Alone 2’s NYC locations—Carnegie Hall. The fountain itself is one of the biggest fountains in the city and serves as a centerpiece to the terrace! There’s plenty to like about this Home Alone 2 film location, and it’s definitely worth the visit.
The production staff created another fake old-timey movie for the sequel.
The Diner still exists, it’s called Empire Diner and it’s located in Chalsea, on the West side of Manhattan. We all have in mind the iconic image of Kevin sticking his head out of the cab as he crosses this bridge. However, this building is not a hospital, but a part of Columbia's Teachers College.
This package needs to be booked at least 3 days prior to check-in, and is subject to availability of rooms at time of booking. Offer valid for new bookings only, is not applicable to group bookings and cannot be combined with other offers. 1st night non-refundable deposit is required at time of booking. As you can see in a more close-up version of that 1972 view, the C-shape of the motel, as well as the pool with parking spaces set around it, match up perfectly to what appeared onscreen in Home Alone 2. People from here are here—sometimes they can just be hard to find. The events of September 11, 2001, cast a shadow over the beginning of Home Alone 2.
Queensboro Bridge
In Home Alone 2, Kevin hits up all the good spots in New York but some locations are a little different these days. There have now been six movies in the Home Alone franchise, with the latest, Home Sweet Home Alone, now available to watch on Disney+. You can find the full list of the New York locations and where to find them here. He stumbles upon the now iconic Duncan's Toy Chest in the center of New York City where he meets the adorable and philanthropic owner Mr. Duncan . It’s here where Kevin is finally united with his mother and the two share a very touching moment together. This shop was located in Manhattan and the name was eventually changed to Good Fortune Gifts.
The Rockefeller Plaza is the last of Home Alone 2 film locations and it serves as the perfect backdrop for one of the movie’s best scenes. In the story, the townhouse is located in New York —however, this is the only one, of the Home Alone 2 film locations, to be shot in Los Angeles. Kevin makes a 911 call from an Upper West Side phone booth and tells the dispatcher that the thieves who robbed Duncan's Toy Chest will be in the park at 95th Street. "Look for fireworks. They've got a gun." Then he slips on ice, and the dastardly duo walks him into the park. Ultimately, the Pigeon Lady throws feed onto the very sticky Sticky Bandits, swarms of pigeons peck away, and Kevin is able to set off fireworks to alert the police to their presence. In the bag of stolen money, he leaves Polaroids of the guys at the toy store as well as the tape recording of Marv explaining the plan.
DISCOVER NYC
There’s a whole generation of New Yorkers who don’t remember how dismal parts of Central Park once were. They never saw the Fulton Fish Market or shopped at the oldest store in Chinatown. Students who entered college this year weren’t yet born when the World Trade Center was destroyed—many probably know it best from watching those few fleeting shots in Home Alone 2 every year. The Twin Towers play a role in Home Alone 2; today, new skyscrapers have replaced those buildings. What’s important, Ratray said, isn’t the exact spot shown in the film—after all, so many of them aren’t real to begin with—but “more the feeling behind it,” the emotional connection. The Plaza is a key location of Home Alone 2, a symbol of luxury as it has been since it opened in 1907.
Kevin is coming from the park, headed to his accommodation for the night. The statue at Grand Army Plaza points the way across the street to the hotel. Crossing the busy intersection here, at 59th Street, is where Marv and Harry first bump into Kevin. A video-game adaptation of the sequel was also released in 1992. The production staff created another fake old-timey movie for the sequel.
"There's nobody dumb enough to knock off a toy store on Christmas Eve," Harry jibes. Marv answers, "Oh, yes there is," and gestures to both of them. The next morning, the family oversleeps and must rush to the airport. Kevin is with them, but he becomes separated from them while carrying Peter's bag and accidentally boards a flight to New York City. Upon arrival, he decides to tour the city, but becomes frightened by a homeless woman tending to pigeons in Central Park.
But even before that, viewers see Kevin walking up some stairs into the complex itself with the two iconic buildings proudly standing in the background. The entire movie was filmed across Chicago and New York, despite the majority of the story being based in NYC. The actual location used for the scenes in the film was in Universal Studios on Brownstone Street! They just used an address here in NYC, that Hollywood trickery. After finally arriving to New York, Kevin’s mom Kate (Played by Catherine O’Hara) goes on a desperate search for her son and catches a cab to Times Square. While it’s one of Home Alone 2’s briefest use of NYC locations, the setting is still a memorable one.
At Battery Park he’d brave a phalanx of tour-boat hawkers to get a view of the Statue of Liberty. Then he’d walk the crowded High Line to end up at Hudson Yards, where he’d snap a photo of the Vessel before ascending to the 100th-story observation deck at Edge at Hudson Yards. It is not any more reliable a depiction of what New York was like in the early 1990s than Law & Order or any other piece of fiction. But this holiday season, countless families will sit together and watch Kevin and Buzz and the Pigeon Lady. For some, the film will reconnect them to other holidays and other viewings.
In Central Park, Kevin encounters and eventually befriends the pigeon lady, who takes him to Carnegie Hall. She explains how her life collapsed when her lover left her; Kevin encourages her to trust people again. After considering her advice that he perform a good deed to make up for his misdeeds, and recalling Mr. Duncan's intent to donate to the hospital, he decides to prevent Harry and Marv from robbing the store. Take Home Alone 2, the classic holiday movie with many scenes set in Central Park.
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. In the beginning of the novelization, a prologue, which ends up being Marv's nightmare in prison, he and Harry sneak away from the cops and return to Kevin's house to seek revenge on Kevin. Kevin bolts into the garage with Marv and Harry in hot pursuit. Harry and Marv end up triggering extra traps that Kevin had set up in the garage.
Though he's Macaulay's brother in real life, he played Kevin's cousin, Fuller, in the films. The pink-hued interior of the McCallister family’s motel room was, I believe, just a set and not an actual room at Rochelle’s. In Home Alone 2, “Sphere” is briefly visible as Kevin climbs the snow-covered steps to the World Trade Center plaza. Today, the statue remains the most significant artifact from the original site on public view. By the time the film went into production, the Kensington had been replaced by the Plaza and the Empire State Building was replaced by a montage of New York City sights. You can find many houses like this on the Upper West Side, in Harlem or Brooklyn.
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