By Lesley Sauls and Glenda Winders
We've thought of Rockford, Illinois, as a special place for a long time because it marks the halfway point on a road trip between our homes in Wisconsin and our extended family in central Indiana, but until recently we'd never actually stopped there except to fill up with gas. Then a meeting we attended gave us the opportunity to exit the highway and explore a richly historic area that is drivable from anywhere in the Midwest and well worth a visit from even farther away.
It turns out we are not the first people to consider Rockford the midpoint in a journey. When the town was settled in the 1830s it was initially called Midway because it was halfway between the lead mines in Galena, Ill., and Fort Dearborn in Chicago where munitions were needed, but its useful rock ford across the Rock River soon caused the small settlement to be renamed Rockford.
As the city grew during the Victorian era, a Swedish cabinetmaker set up shop and began a large cooperative cabinet industry that added to the city's growth. Other Swedish immigrants came to the area, with the result that now there are lingonberry treats in most restaurants, and Swedish arts and crafts decorate neighborhood windows and shops.
A docent at Midway Village Museum told us that the Swedish influence was further enhanced by a trainload of immigrants from Sweden who had been headed to Chicago during the 1918 Spanish influenza epidemic but were turned away from the city for their own safety. They continued to the end of the railway line and set up their community alongside other Swedes already settled in Rockford.
At this museum we toured a Victorian village of original and carefully replicated buildings in the style of the late 1800s. Cabinets and counters in the school, hotel and stores are filled with artifacts appropriate to the period — typesetting instruments in the newspaper office, cloth sacks of supplies in the general store, and clover- and heart-adorned custom horseshoes at the blacksmith's shop. The antiquated hospital supplies made us grateful for antibiotics and modern medical education.
The main gallery at the museum houses the Stinson airplane crashed by Bert Hassel and Parker Cramer in 1928 as they attempted to find an air route over the top of the world. The flight failed, and the airplane was lost in Greenland's ice fields for 40 years. It has since been recovered and returned to its Rockford home along with supplies from the trip and an inspiring story of its two rugged survivors.
While we were at the museum we had the unexpected pleasure of meeting two other inspiring people from Rockford, Barbara Thompson and Sis Waddell, two of the Rockford Peaches who played for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. With the financial support of Phillip Wrigley, the chewing-gum mogul who had inherited the Chicago Cubs from his father, the league began during World War II, when most young men had gone off to war and hundreds of spunky young women tried out for the AAGPBL to entertain crowds in their place. That number was whittled down to 60 women who were divided into four teams, and the Rockford Peaches were born. The league lasted from 1943-54 and changed the perception of women athletes in this country.
After leaving the history museum, we made our way to the Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum, where we could see more of the Victorian influence on Rockford. There, perched on a sheer-faced cliff overlooking Kent Creek, is a carefully preserved Swiss cottage that was created in stages by its owner, artist Robert Hall Tinker. An accountant by trade, he started with a small cottage onto which he built, room by room, his masterpiece.
In the first rooms of the home Tinker painted small images of Europe from his extensive travels. These served as conversation pieces in the days before radio, television and photography. After marrying in 1870, he continued to build onto his home and etched detailed pictures of the Seven Wonders of the World under the balcony of his two-story library. In their dining room, his wife had a painting of lace on the ceiling and a glass-covered shadowbox-type table in which she displayed jewelry and lacework.
Art and history also go hand in hand at the Coronado Theatre, which was built in 1927 in the Spanish-Italianate style popular at the time. It was created as an "atmospheric theater," which means the paintings on its ceiling and the lighting system can combine to create the feeling of being outdoors at any time of day or night. There are only four such theaters in the country, and this one has hosted the likes of Frank Sinatra, Liberace and President John F. Kennedy.
The theater was renovated in the 1990s and today offers mainly live performances. Our guide told us it would cost $70 million to build such a palace today, and the project would be impossible anyway because there are no longer artisans who do this type of work.
The best part of a visit to the Coronado is hearing Bob Bates play the original Barton pipe organ. The instrument's console has been computerized because its wires were deteriorating, but the sound is the same as it was in the heyday of silent movies. Watching its gold, dragon-covered splendor emerge as the orchestra pit rises is an experience that in most places is no longer an option.
Live theater is available at another unusual venue, too. The Starlight Theatre on the grounds of Rock Valley College seats 1,000 under a one-of-a-kind retractable roof that makes for open-air entertainment on summer evenings. The performances bring together professional actors as well as students and community members. The nearby Studio Theatre — located in an old barn, the oldest building on campus — offers performances from September to March in a more intimate setting.
"Rockford is a regional arts mecca," said artist Lisa Frost, who was showing us the cultural sites in her hometown. "It's a beautiful city with great people, and it's close to Milwaukee and Chicago but without the traffic."
Our next stop was the Rockford Art Museum. Located in a refurbished department store, it offers an impressive collection of 19th- and 20th-century American art that includes paintings, sculpture, photography and glass with an emphasis on regional pieces.
For a look at the edgier art scene, we made a stop at Rockford Art Deli, a downtown collective that specializes in screen-printing designs and offers offbeat gift items. Fine art pieces are also on display and for sale here, and it's a venue for live music — all in an old bank building.
A peaceful way to start or end any day in Rockford is with a walk through Anderson Japanese Gardens. Founder John Anderson was so taken with Japanese gardens he saw in Portland, Ore., that he brought in designer Hoichi Kurisu to create gardens, walkways, bridges and waterfalls that would provide a place of grace, elegance and awareness where people can come to find healing, renewal and inspiration.
WHEN YOU GO
Midway Village Museum: www.midwayvillage.com
Swiss Tinker Cottage: www.tinkercottage.com
Coronado Center for the Performing Arts: www.coronadopac.org
Starlight Theatre: www.rockvalleycollege.edu/community/theatre
Rockford Art Museum: www.rockfordartmuseum.org
Rockford Art Deli: www.rockfordartdeli.com
Anderson Japanese Gardens: www.andersongardens.org
Lesley Sauls and Glenda Winders are freelance writers. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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