# @chicago_history on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Dce2j0PRaEV
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/69742080-chicago-history-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/a4247f20b5.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-08-25T23:50:37.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Michael Dembov (@chicago_history) — https://gondola.cc/chicago_history

## Caption

Before there was Northbrook, there was Shermerville. And decades later, the North Shore would help become the backdrop for one of the most Chicago movies ever made.

John Hughes grew up in Northbrook and knew these suburbs, streets and train lines firsthand. When he made Ferris Bueller’s Day Off in 1986, he didn’t just set a movie in Chicago, he made Chicago and the North Shore part of the story.

Ferris’ legendary day took him from the suburbs into the city: the Art Institute, Wrigley Field, Lake Shore Drive, the Sears Tower and, of course, that unforgettable downtown parade. But the movie’s suburban soul came straight out of the world Hughes knew.

Northbrook itself had once been called Shermerville, named for Frederick Shermer, before residents changed the village’s name to Northbrook in 1923.

So seeing SAVE FERRIS on a Northbrook water tower just feels right.

Nearly 40 years later, Ferris Bueller still feels like ours — a love letter to Chicago written by a kid who grew up in the suburbs and understood exactly what made this city special.

Life moves pretty fast. #ChicagoHistory ☑️

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 2,385
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- **Comments:** 8

## Tags

chicagohistory

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