Gurnee, Illinois - Big Onan Man with Garage

Regarding the Onan Man with the House in Gurnee and Pyramid House in Wadsworth: Your speculation is correct. Both are (or at least were) owned by the Onan family, who run Onan Garages. They used to own several hotels (known as the Adventure Inns), now there is just the one left (as far as I know), and several condo and apartment buildings in the Lake County, Illinois area.

The man with the house (it's actually a garage) is an advertisement for Onan Garages. The Onan Man had nothing to do with the Handy Andy across the street, at least not as far back as I can remember (and I've lived in the area my entire life).

Jim Onan owns the company, and his commercials all begin with "I'm Jim Onan" and end with "Nobody, but NOOOO BODY, will beat a deal on an Onan Garage." [Chris Swingler, 05/04/2008]

This guy was spotted in Gurnee Illinois on Grand avenue across the street from an abandoned Handy Andy home improvement store. He now seems to advertise Onan Enterprises. A worthy second career for a fiberglass giant, except there is no ONAN enterprises anywhere to be seen, just a fleabag "fantasy attractions" motel behind him. So, he's not really a muffler man, not really a Handy Andy...just some big guy with a house, or perhaps a garage, under his arm and a hammer in his hand. [Erika Gray, 08/14/2004]

[RA: Perhaps "Onan" is related to the family that owns the Golden Pyramid house in nearby Wadsworth, Illinois.]

Big old muffler man [Ra: we've since determined this isn't a Muffler Man] in front of a business called Onan's Garage...they build garages and it seems to me he might even be holding a small version of one. You could call them for verification. [cheryl, 11/29/2000]