Rockford Historical Society

Rockford Historical Society We seek to preserve the history of Rockford, its residents, industry, retail businesses, churches, e A non-profit local historic preservation organization.

Turn back the clock on Thursday.On July 10th 1907, the Swedish Old Settlers Society had a picnic.Attendees gathered nort...
08/27/2026

Turn back the clock on Thursday.

On July 10th 1907, the Swedish Old Settlers Society had a picnic.
Attendees gathered north of Rockford at what was called Love’s Park on what turned out to be a rainy day. Many of those that attended arrived via the Illinois river boat. The event was to honor the Swedish pioneers that arrived in Rockford before 1860. Of the 14 early settlers to be honored 12 participated. The event had been widely advertised for months and a guest speaker from Chicago Dr. John A. Enander (editor of the Swedish paper Hemlander) spoke about how the Swedish people embraced the USA and how they had fought in numerous wars to defend their new country.
The early settlers had seen Rockford grow from a village to a city, from a farming community to an industrial center.

Included among these early settlers was P. A. Peterson who arrived in Rockford in 1852.
Pehr August Peterson, who at one time was known as the “Furniture King,” was born in Sweden and moved to Rockford at the age of six. He worked in Wisconsin in lumber camps and saw mills, and then briefly as a teamster and later bookkeeper in Chicago. In 1875, he returned to Rockford and began his career in the growing furniture industry. At the age of 30, he helped found the Union Furniture Company and went on to acquire interest in other furniture companies. He died in 1927, at the age of 81, a multi-millionaire.

Upon his death, he bequeathed $500,000 to build a home “for aged people.” In his will, he named a board of trustees to choose a parcel of land that would be developed to provide a place for elder people of Swedish ancestry to live.

PA Peterson was built and opened in 1941 as a “house” of 12 rooms for those needing care.

The dream and vision of Pehr A. Peterson continues to flourish in the Rockford Community through PA Peterson at the Citadel.

Mr. Peterson was a great philanthropist who believed in community and giving of himself to help others achieve their best. Sourced from: the Rockford Newspaper archives. Posted by: Gary Patton (RHS board member & Admin of Rockford Made It FB group).

Throwback Thursday: Did you know that Frank Sinatra made his career-launching debut at the Coronado theater with the Tom...
08/20/2026

Throwback Thursday: Did you know that Frank Sinatra made his career-launching debut at the Coronado theater with the Tommy Dorsey Band?

On January 26, 1940, he made his first public appearance with the band at the Coronado Theatre in Rockford, Illinois,opening the show with "Stardust". Dorsey recalled: "You could almost feel the excitement coming up out of the crowds when the kid stood up to sing. Remember, he was no matinée idol. He was just a skinny kid with big ears. I used to stand there so amazed I'd almost forget to take my own solos"."
See the Wikipedia link below for more details.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Sinatra

(Photo is courtesy of the Land of Lincoln Theatre Organ Society and Friends of the Coronado archive collections).
Learn more at www.friendsofthecorondo.org

Sourced from: Friends of the Coronado Foundation and Wikipedia.

Remember the Colonial Village Shopping Center and the Minute Man ?~opened in 1967The Minute Man and Little Ike the Colon...
08/17/2026

Remember the Colonial Village Shopping Center and the Minute Man ?
~opened in 1967

The Minute Man and Little Ike the Colonial Cannon symbolized the firm belief of the owners and managers in the American system of the free enterprise.

The action at Colonial Village Mall was that there Minute Man was quick to answer the call. To visit and enjoy the early American atmosphere of the Colonial Village stores to discover what was a “Revolution” in the shopping convenience.

~Crystal Ball~

—————————
Source:
Rockford Morning Star
Friday, April 21st, 1967
Page 100

Throwback Thursday. The Lundberg home is located at 946 N. 2nd St., Rockford, IL.This is the house just north of the YMC...
08/13/2026

Throwback Thursday. The Lundberg home is located at 946 N. 2nd St., Rockford, IL.
This is the house just north of the YMCA. that many of us see while driving by and wonder what it might look like inside and who owned this beautiful home. In the 1800’s this property was part of the Schmauss Cattle Yards.
This area is known as the Brown Hills-Knightsville Historic District.
The home was added to the Register of Historic Places in 2008.
I recently toured this iconic home for the first time and here is some of what I learned:

The house was initially built in 1915 for Charles and Olga Weinberg (who lived there till 1942) and was affectionately known as “the Stone House”.
Charles Lundberg was the founder and president of the Cooperative Furniture Company, Rockford World Furniture Company, and the Empire Limited. He was deeply involved in the design of the house. Charles chose each piece of hardwood planking for the floors.

The houses architect was Frank A Carpenter, who lived in Rockford his entire 84 years. He owned his architecture firm for over 40 years, and was a graduate of the University of Illinois, and a member of the American Institute of architects.
Charles and Olga occupied the house until the mid-1940s when they moved to California to be closer to their son Karl and daughter Karin.

The exterior exhibits many colonial characteristics: its symmetry, large front porch, window fenestration, two symmetrical wings, dormers, and side gabled roof. There are also craftsman touches with the glazed bricks that outline the windows and the chimney. One thing that makes the house so unique is the use of Indiana limestone as the primary building material. During the renovation, the front terrace was replaced with the re-purposed stone from the steps of the art institute of Chicago. The interior is an ode to the Arts and Crafts movement, with a beautiful example being the Massachusetts Grueby Tile that adorns the foyer.

1944 - 1947 Max and Leona Liebling were the owners. Max was a real estate developer, president, Rockford window cleaning secretary / treasurer, Empire building.

1948 - 1951 John and Pauline Sartino were the owners.
They owned the Forest City Liquor Co.

1952 - 1953 the property is listed as not occupied.

1954 - 1973 Abe and Lena Parkarsky were the owners. Abe owned
Kishwaukee Auto Parts & Wrecking.

1974 - 1986 Salvatore and Johanna Buscemi were the owners.
Salvatore owned Stateline Vending Machines, Inc. Salvatore had Johanna’s
name chiseled into a stone slab adorning the fireplace.

1987 - 1991 shows as being vacant.

1992 - 1996 Dan O’Boyle is the owner.
Dan is the CPA Superviser, McGladrey & Pullen.

1996 - 1998 YMCA is the owner.

1998 - 2000 Bill Keating a real estate agent is listed as owner.

2000 - present the “Community Foundation of Northern Illinois”.
(which was previously known as “The Rockford Community Trust”).

The theme is “Thirsty on Thursday”. With all the beverages available today we don’t think about how special it must of b...
08/06/2026

The theme is “Thirsty on Thursday”. With all the beverages available today we don’t think about how special it must of been when soft drinks came along. We also take for granted that our drinks can be cold on a hot day.
Around the turn of the century we had a soft drink called Iron Brew.
It was a form of Coca type Cola that was bottled in 7 oz bottles. With the temperance movement becoming much stronger the desire for non alcoholic beverages increased too. Iron Brew also sponsored a baseball team (seen seated in the truck picture below). Wilson Bottling ended up buying Iron Brew bottle works eventually. With refrigeration becoming widely available cold soft drinks became the preferred treat at restaurants and sporting events on hot summer days.

Throwback Thursday.In 1974 Rockford decided to build the Downtown Mall. It appears the mall was dedicated on June 20th 1...
07/30/2026

Throwback Thursday.
In 1974 Rockford decided to build the Downtown Mall. It appears the mall was dedicated on June 20th 1975. Does anyone recall going to the mall?
The mall was also the original location of the orange symbol that is now located near the Rock river on the East side just south of Spring Creek.

Throwback Thursday. A home many of us admire on Prospect is the Spafford estate. Here is some history about the man who ...
07/23/2026

Throwback Thursday. A home many of us admire on Prospect is the Spafford estate. Here is some history about the man who had it built.
"Built in 1863 or 1864, the Amos Catlin Spafford House in Rockford, Illinois is a successful amalgamation of the picturesque revival styles that flourished throughout mid-nineteenth-century America. Its asymmetrical massing in general -- and three-story tower in particular -- are characteristic of the Italian Villa style, but steeply-pitched gable roofs and a prominently-featured wall dormer suggest the Gothic Revival as well. Exterior ornament reflects this same marriage of styles. Paired round-headed windows and the tower's bracketed projecting eaves are quintessentially Italianate. Gothicized elements include an entrance porch and veranda with beveled posts and trefoil ornament, richly-carved flared bargeboards, decorative pinnacles and elaborate chimneys. A bracketed canopy with tracery balustrade happily embodies both idioms. And the mansard-like concave hip roof atop the tower presages yet a third mode, the Franco-American or Second Empire.
The house is constructed of yellow brick, said to have been brought from Milwaukee by bullock cart. The tower, corner veranda, kitchen wing, and several small additions obscure what is in essence a simple L-shaped plan. A parlor and dining room to one side of the central hall retain original white marble fireplaces. The original staircase stands beneath an octagonal skylight. Interior wood and plaster trim is original and in excellent condition. Several oriental rugs and other furnishings (including a magnificent gilt mirror frame over the parlor mantle) are also original to the house...
While the Amos Catlin Spafford House is surely one of Rockford's most striking -- and best preserved -- examples of the picturesque movement in American architecture, it is primarily significant for its historical association with six generations of the Spafford family, instrumental in the growth and development of Rockford since 1839...
A native of Jefferson County, New York, Amos Catlin Spafford was one of three brothers who traveled to Rockford by canal boat, Lake steamer, and team in the fall of 1839. For several years young Spafford worked as a farmer, than as a sawyer, then as a merchant. His real rise to prominence, however, began in 1854, when he founded a private banking firm with C.C. Briggs and David Penfield. In 1864 this was reorganized as the Third National Bank of Rockford and Spafford became the first president. He served in this capacity until his death in 1897.
As head of one of one of the city's major financial institutions, Spafford played a key role in Rockford's rapid growth as a manufacturing center. He was instrumental, for example, in the creation of the Kenosha and Rockford Railroad. Son George served as president of the bank (one of two in Rockford to survive the Great Depression) from 1906 to 1943. (The bank was renamed the First National Bank of Rockford in 1958)
Spafford's daughter Jessie was a Rockford personage in her own right. Educated at Vassar College, the University of Chicago and the Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, Switzerland, Jessie Spafford returned to her native city to become head of the mathematics and physics department at Rockford College. She later served as vice-president of the Third National until her death in 1952 at the age of 90.
Father and daughter were among the most public spirited of Rockford's citizens. Amos Spafford was a founder of the First Congregational Church and held a variety of township and municipal offices. Jennie Spafford was the first woman president of the Rockford School Board. Together, they played an important role in founding the Boy's Club, the Rockford Woman's Club, the Community Chest, and Montague House, the city's first settlement house. Small wonder, then, that local historian Charles Church should describe the Spafford family in 1916 as "one of the best and most highly respected in the county." The house and expansive grounds are surrounded by a iron fence. Source: National Register. Posted by Gary Patton, RHS board member & admin of the Rockford Made It FB group.

Throwback Thursday. Here is the oldest map known of Rockford. It’s from the late 1830’s and it shows where Germanicus Ke...
07/16/2026

Throwback Thursday. Here is the oldest map known of Rockford. It’s from the late 1830’s and it shows where Germanicus Kent’s saw mill was located on Kent creek. Notice Kent’s dam and how it shows the creek flooded up stream. If you look close you will see the water race connecting the higher water above Kent’s dam and running to the sawmill. Kent was the first to harness water power in Rockford. This map also shows us the location of the original rock ford on the Rock river. Posted by: Gary Patton (RHS board member & admin of the Rockford Made It FB group).

For throwback Thursday we sometimes see old Rockford area buildings repurposed. This is the case of the old Interurban T...
07/09/2026

For throwback Thursday we sometimes see old Rockford area buildings repurposed. This is the case of the old Interurban Train repair shop that was located on what is now the Woodward property. The “North Shop” repair station was constructed starting in 1910 and was functioning by 1912.
The building is now part of the Woodward building on North Second street.
Recently Woodward has been repairing and replacing the parking lot. Part of the repairs included the area where their shipping department dock is located. This is the part of the building where the trains would enter the building when it was the train repair station. Included are some photos of pieces of the wooden ties that were found from the old rails that were under cement driveway that was being repaired. This was the East entrance of the train station.

Throwback Thursday.A special thanks to the Rockford Firemen of our past & present for them helping the public to stay sa...
07/02/2026

Throwback Thursday.
A special thanks to the Rockford Firemen of our past & present for them helping the public to stay safe.
The old YMCA building on East State & Madison can be seen on the left.
The fire truck location would be on Madison near Oak st.
or perhaps Walnut st. The view is looking North.
Circa 1913.
Posted by: Gary Patton, RHS board member & admin of the Rockford Made It FB group. Photo from my collection.

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