Once impressive home overlooking Round Lake being demolished
Vacant and in legal limbo for years, the once-grand home of a colorful insurance executive overlooking Round Lake is being demolished.
The Alpine-style house at the end of North Lakeview Drive in Round Lake was built in the 1960s and added onto several times until it encompassed about 8,000 square feet with attached garages on two separate lots.
An "M" below the roofline on the front of the structure was a nod to the family of Clarence E. Molloy, a noted Chicago insurance executive well known to residents in the small, out-of-the-way neighborhood.
"The house was quite impressive back in the day but fell into disrepair once the owner died," said Katie Parkhurst, the village's director of economic and community development.
Mike Duax, a retired school administrator who has lived in the tight-knit neighborhood for 40 years, described Molloy, who owned other properties on the block, as wealthy, eccentric and affable.
"Clarence Molloy was quite a character," Duax said. "He wanted to put a helipad down here. He was a nice pleasant man who lived his own life."
Molloy died in 2007. The property was left to his children, but they weren't interested, according to Parkhurst. Taxes were last paid in 2015 and the home was left vacant and continued to deteriorate, she added.
The property had been on the village's code enforcement radar for some time. Official action began in late 2020 to address an unsecured building, broken doors, vandalism and potential squatters.
An on-site inspection that December documented building code violations. Four entry doors were boarded up and a hole in the roof was deemed too dangerous for village crews to fix and was left open.
In May 2021, a judge declared the property abandoned. A would-be tax buyer wanted the order vacated saying a client might be willing to make repairs but by August waived the objection.
About that time the abandonment had to reboot because not all the lots associated with the property were included in the court action, Parkhurst said.
The house continued to deteriorate and is considered a dangerous eyesore with break-ins, damage and graffiti reported. Periodic interest in the property didn't pan out, Parkhurst said.
In November 2022, the abandonment was concluded and a deed granted to the Lake County Land Bank Authority. The entity was created in 2018 to address blighted, vacant and abandoned properties throughout the county. Members are the municipalities of Beach Park, Fox Lake, North Chicago, Round Lake and Round Lake Beach.
The agency works with local governments, developers, community organizations, homeowners and lending banks to redevelop, demolish and repurpose specifically targeted properties and improve neighborhoods, Parkhurst said.
In this case, the village with the consent of the group is using state grant funds to demolish the Molloy home and structures. The site will be graded and seeded with grass and is expected to be put on the market.