Analysis: The Mystery Of Red Shield Lodge

Doesn't "The Mystery of Red Shield Lodge" sound like a Hardy Boys book? Well, there is a Sears-built house called Red Shield Lodge in the Northwest suburbs and it's got some unanswered questions surrounding it.

In the 1931 catalog, Homes of Today, Sears promoted their custom home design and construction services. The Home Construction Division of Sears could build you a house "from any plans you may have or plans prepared by your own architect." In communities that had Sears construction offices (like the Chicago area) Sears would "engage the best building contractors and supervise all construction from start to finish."

Red Shield Lodge--A Custom Home Built by Sears

A two-page spread in the 1931 catalog was devoted to "Red Shield Lodge,

On the positive side, at least Red Shield Lodge is still around and seems largely unchanged since 1931.

UPDATE!

I heard from Fuller and Marjorie's eldest son who grew up in the house.

He said that the property was originally intended as a summer house where the couple could entertain their friends. In the winters, the Rothschilds lived with Marjorie's parents in the city.

Marjorie Rothschild worked as an interior decorator, affiliated with Sears, Roebuck.

Red Shield Lodge was originally comprised of ten acres that were formerly part of the Frost farm to the west. The road was unnamed in the 1930's, and mail was addressed to “Red Shield Lodge, Palatine, Illinois.”

After the Rothschilds divorced, Marjorie remarried and began living in the house all year round beginning in 1940. Marjorie and her husband renamed the property Hobby Hill. (Some of the old-timers in the area still refer to Frost Road as Hobby Hill Road.) Fuller served in World War II as a medical technician and later moved to Los Angeles and remarried.

Marjorie and her husband sold the house in fall 1952, reportedly for $60,000, and moved to Chicago. Newlyweds Madonna and Richard Heinen moved into Hobby Hill in October of that