Rockford Heritage Center

Rockford’s pillar of history is the Ames-Florida-Stork House Museum. The house and its artifacts provide a time capsule of the 1860’s through the early 1900’s. Family history of the Ames's, Florida’s and Stork’s are displayed creatively and their connections with Rockford shared. As Paul Harvey was famous for saying; “and now for the rest of the story”. The Rockford Area Historical Society is seeking approval of the city of Rockford and the Minnesota State Historical Society to provide additional historical perspective on our community. To accomplish this fully the RAHS is proposing a second building be placed on the Ames-Florida-Stork House property. This facility would be accessible for all regardless of physical limitations. Additional amenities would allow for group meetings to be held onsite with kitchen facilities available. There would be additional covered outdoor space expanding our capacity and encouraging more outdoor events and demonstrations. Display space would focus on a broader range of topics than our current museum can display. Just a few of the topics we would feature.

• Our farm families that were the economic foundation of Rockford and Greenfield. They provided commodities for the mills and money that supported area retailers. Capturing the history of homesteaders clearing land, planting their first crops, and raising families that have tilled the land for generations is a priority for our organization.
• Thirteen country schools fed Rockford High School with students from 1917-1964. The story of these one room schools and their consolidation is one that should be preserved and shared for future generations.
• The 1940’s and 50’s were a growth period for our community as we transitioned from a workforce of farmers to retail/service employment opportunities. Grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants and other retail shops provided jobs for women and men. This time period is rather thin in documentation since Rockford had no newspaper and most of the city records were destroyed in the 1952 and 1965 floods engulfing Rockford City Hall.

We are sharing our architectural draft of the new facility today. Our goal is to raise $500,000 covering the cost of the building, display units and media. This spring we had 400 Rockford students tour the Ames-Florida-Stork House, imagine if we would have a facility to break out afterwards for group discussions. This additional resource will provide new and unique learning experiences about the Rockford and Greenfield area for our youth and adults.