4th of July Fireworks in Downtown Rockford 1984

4th of July fireworks in downtown Rockford over the Rock River in 1984. These photographs were obtained by donation at RPL’s Community Scan Day event in the Spring of 2023.

Bridges/Buildings in view: Rockford Register Star News Tower located at 99 E State St.,  Jefferson Street Bridge, the United Bank of Illinois located at 120 W State St., and the Luther Center Apartments located at 111 W State St.

Source:  Addresses and building names were pulled from the 1984 City Directory located in the Local History Room at RPL.

Bridges/Buildings in view:  Jefferson Street Bridge, Rockford Public Library located at 215 N Wyman St., the Pioneer Marketing Associates building located at 127 N Wyman St., and the Rever’s Marina located at 222 N Water St.

Source:  Addresses and building names were pulled from the 1984 City Directory located in the Local History Room at RPL.

Bridges/Buildings in view:  Jefferson Street Bridge, the United Bank of Illinois located at 120 W State St., the Luther Center Apartments located at 111 W State St., the Rockford Trust Building located at 202 W State St., and the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois building located at 227 N Wyman St.

Source:  Addresses and building names were pulled from the 1984 City Directory located in the Local History Room at RPL.

Shelter Care Ministries, Lending a Helping Hand for 35 years

Northwest Quarterly, Winter 2020

“Mayor John McNamara leads an elephant parade…” – [1984]

Source:  Rockford Register Star 5//23/2017

*** There were many circus parades in Rockford.  In early years it was believed the bridge across Rock River was not strong enough for the weight of elephants and a newspaper story reported that the elephants walked across the river nearly all underwater except part of their trunks. (Story but no photo of that.) The circus most often arrived by train and the elephants walked to the performance tents from the train.  Two of the park performance areas were (1) in an empty lot north of Cedar St. between Church and Courts Sts., or a lot approximately in the location of the Mendelssohn Club’s building today.

The Mob in Rockford – 1984, Pt. 2 of Series

Source:  Rockford Register Star 3/4/1984