I heard some sad news from a friend in Illinois about LaGrange Hobbies in suburban Chicago. The owner, Bill, had just agreed to sell the building, and the buyer will use the building for another purpose after closing on June 30th. LaGrange Hobbies would then be history. … Sadly, Bill passed away over the past weekend. He was just 6 weeks away from retirement, and this happened. … The store is now closed.
When I was growing up in Illinois, I used to buy trains at LaGrange Hobbies. Then it was a larger store on a different street in LaGrange. Different owner back then too.
Al’s Hobby Shop in Elmhurst closed a few years back, adding it to a long and growing list of closed and shuttered local hobby shops in the Chicago suburbs.
Kevin, when you visit Chicago in September, visit Walt’s Hobby Shop in Joliet and Lombard Hobbies in Lombard. Lombard Hobbies discounts merchandise, Walt’s does not.
Park Lane Hobbies over in Dyer also closed when the owner retired a little while after we moved. They had an incredible layout- I wonder if they were able to move it? Most of these are due to retirements.There was also a toy and hobby store in the suburbs that I can not remember the name of that about downsized themselves out of existence. went to about 10-20% of their original size.
There are still a lot of good hobby shops there Zinteks over in Pilsen has a tremendous amount of stuff including OOP and is a great shop. Grayland station on Devon is a tiny ship in space but is absolutely packed to the rafters- lots of Nscale too. RAM is also a really good shop but the hours are a bit irregular probably due to the owners health. Chicagoland hobby on Milwaukee is also a good stop. Des Plaines is absolutely a not miss. On the Indiana side is B&G which is a little out of the way. Did not make it to Lombard but heard it was good. I know I am forgetting some.