Just one day removed after the real-life Punxsutawney Phil forecast six more weeks of winter, the B&B where the movie Groundhog Day was filmed hit the market. You could purchase it, set a vintage alarm-clock radio to blare off “I Got You, Babe” at 6:00am and relive the same day over and over-and over and over…. and over and over and over and over.
The 5,815 square-foot Royal Victorian Manor is a beautiful and delectably restored 1895 mansion that’s currently being operated as a B&B, just like the “Cherry Street Inn” that played host to Bill Murray’s character in the film.
The house is though, nowhere near Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. It is in Woodstock, Illinois. The town however, still has an annual “Groundhog Days” festival purely to celebrate the fact that it was featured in the 1993 movie. The events recently included a symposium with writer Danny Rubin and a walking tour of the locations featured in the film.
The property itself honors the legacy of Groundhog Day. it has plaques installed acknowledging and celebrating the film. The choice is there to operate the premises as a B&B or, as the listing actually encourages, it might be “easily turned into the grand single family it once was.” However, you’ll most likely always have to accommodate hoards of fans that’re wanting to sneak a peek at the inn to relive some of the 12,395 days (a figure estimated by WhatCulture) that Murray’s character spent there.
Several years ago, Bill Murray did an AMA at Reddit, where he talked about how Groundhog Day was an overlooked masterpiece that should have gotten more credit:
The script is one of the greatest conceptual scripts I’ve ever seen. It’s a script that was so unique, so original, and yet it got not acclaim. To me it was no question that it was the greatest script of the year. To this day people are talking about it, but they forget no one paid any attention to it at the time… But doing the movie, shooting the scenes over and over, it’s like an acting challenge. It’s like doing a play and those same scenes over and over and again, so you can try to make it better or deeper or funnier than you made it previously.
Maybe when you purchase the house, you could turn it into a museum devoted to the movie and help Groundhog Day get the rightful attention that it deserves.