Marigold Lodge / Marigold Lodge

Built in 1913 for Egbert H. and Margaret Gold of Chicago, Marigold Lodge was one of the first large summer houses along Black Lake (now called Lake Macatawa). Mr. Gold named the estate in honor of his wife and daughter. In keeping with its Prairie School styling, the broad, low lodge is finished in stucco and simple weather-boarding. The house remained in the Gold family until 1969. Herman Miller, Incorporated later acquired title and refurbished the building and its grounds. The site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Egbert H. Gold (1858-1928), a Chicago industrialist and inventor, acquired over one hundred patents during his lifetime. President of the Chicago-based Vapor Car Company, he devised a heating system used by railroads. To build Marigold, he retained the architectural firm Tallmadge and Watson of Chicago, and in 1913 this elegant structure was begun. He had plantings from England and the Netherlands imported to landscape the grounds and turn the sandy, bramble-covered peninsula into a place of beauty.