Happy Birthday, 'Sixteen Candles': The real-life locations where the ‘80s classic was filmed (2024)

Although some of the film’s thematic elements don’t hold up today, Sixteen Candles is undoubtedly a coming-of-age staple. This teen-centric rom-com wasn’t hugely successful at the box office when it hit theaters on May 4, 1984, but John Hughes’ directorial debut persevered to become a cult classic.

When Hughes was writing the film, he asked his agent to send him photographs of up-and-coming actresses, and put a shot of Molly Ringwald on the wall above his desk, essentially using her as his muse while he crafted the script. That didn’t give Ringwald a clear path to the role, though. The young Facts of Life actress still had to beat out stiff competition — including Laura Dern, as well as her future The Breakfast Club costar Ally Sheedy — before scoring the part of birthday girl Samantha Baker. (Her eventual costar Anthony Michael Hall had an easier road: Hughes wrote the role of Geek after Hughes saw the actor in another film he wrote, National Lampoon’s Vacation.)

Like other Hughes films Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Home Alone, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, Uncle Buck, the Vacation movies, and Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Sixteen Candles was set in the fictional Illinois town of Shermer, ostensibly a suburb of Chicago. In reality, the movie was shot mainly in the real-life Chicago suburbs of Evanston, Skokie, and Highland Park, Ill. Here’s where some of the most iconic scenes were filmed.

The Baker House (3022 Payne Street, Evanston, Ill.)

Sixteen seconds into Sixteen Candles, we see the Baker House: home to sweet-but-disgruntled Samantha Baker, her older sister Ginny (Blanche Baker), two younger siblings, and parents (played by Paul Dooley and Carlin Glynn). Sam, bummed that turning 16 didn’t have an effect on her appearance overnight, is subsequently baffled by the fact that her entire family has forgotten her birthday — and so begins the film, which follows two days in Sam’s life.

While some of the interior shots were filmed on built sets, the exteriors of the Georgian-style home were filmed at 3022 Payne Street, in Evanston, Ill., as were certain interior scenes (the stairs Sam sits on in the film’s opening sequence are the Payne St. house’s actual stairs; or they were, before being renovated).

It’s not available for purchase or rent at the moment, but photos of the house in its current state can be viewed on Zillow.

The Ryan House (1407 Waverly Road, Highland Park, Ill.)

Sam’s crush, Jake Ryan (Michael Schoeffling), reluctantly holds a house party after the school dance — given no other choice by his girlfriend, Caroline Mulford (Haviland Morris), who’d invited half the school over after hearing his parents wouldn’t be home. The house is located in Highland Park, Ill., at 1407 Waverly Road.

The part of Jake Ryan nearly went to Viggo Mortensen, whom Molly Ringwald has said she’d hoped would get the job. (She told Access Hollywood he made her “weak in the knees” during their chemistry read.) It was Schoeffling’s first screen role, and though he became highly sought-after within the industry after Sixteen Candles’ release, he retired from acting just seven years later. Since then, he reportedly started a woodworking shop where he makeshandcrafted furniture.

The High School — Niles East High School (7701 North Lincoln Avenue, Skokie, Ill.) and Niles North High School (9800 Lawler Ave, Skokie, Ill.)

The unnamed high school that features prominently in Sixteen Candles (including during the opening credits sequence, which also cheekily shows someone wearing a pin that reads ‘I *sorta* love Evanston’) is Niles East High School, which was located at 7701 North Lincoln Avenue, Skokie, Ill. It ceased operating in 1980, after which it became a staple for Hughes, who also used footage of its exterior in Weird Science and Pretty in Pink. The school has since been torn down and become the Oaktown Community College.

Both exterior and interior school shots were filmed at Niles East — including the auto shop scene where Sam agrees to let the Geek pretend he has “bagged” her. But one of its sister schools, Niles North High School, also in Skokie, was reportedly used for certain scenes, such as the famous dance scene in the gym.

The Church — Glencoe Union Church (263 Park Ave, Glencoe, Ill.)

Both the interior and exterior shots of the church where Sam’s sister Ginny gets married — the vestry where Ginny’s mother attempts to sober her eldest daughter up, the chapel, and the steps where onlookers throw rice at the newlyweds — were filmed at Glencoe Union Church, located in Glencoe, Ill.

The film’s ultimate climax also occurs at Glencoe, when Sam leaves the church to find the wedding party gone — and hunky Jake Ryan waiting for her (her?! Yes, her) in his red Porsche on the street outside.

Fun fact: The flashy sports car’s seemingly arbitrary license plate — visible at the end of the film, reading “21850” — is a nod to Hughes’ birthday (Feb. 18, 1950). Coincidentally, Ringwald was born on Feb. 18, 1968. Unlike Sam’s family, we can assume they never forgot each other’s birthdays.