The Groundhog Day House-- Part 1: "The Finest Residence"

It still stands and as of right now, you spend the night in it, perhaps "Bill's room.  It is a Bed & Breakfast at one time called the Royal Victorian B&B, but possibly now the Cherry Tree Inn B&B.  In the movie it was the Cherry Street Inn.  Located in picturesque Woodstock, Illinois, about 50 miles northwest of Chicago in McHenry County.

I was killing some time in the Woodstock Library waiting for the Chili Cookoff to begin.over at the Moose Lodge (where the Groundhog Day dance and bachelor auction was held in the movie).

The library has a particularly good section on local history and someone had hone through the Woodstock newspaper and made a huge group of oversized scrapbooks.  I was looking through one from 1900 and from the Saturday, July 14, 1900, paper, I saw a line drawing of a very familiar house.  It was none other than the famed "Groundhog Day House" where Bill Murray "stayed" during the filming.

It is a magnificent house then as it is now.

The headlines read:  "AN IDEAL RESIDENCE THE HOME OF ATTORNEY C.P. BARNES IN THE CITY.  It Is Now Completed -- The Finest Residence, Most Picturesque Site and Pleasantest Surroundings In Illinois.

--RoadHouse