THE MUSEUM BUILDING
The two-story wood frame building that houses the Rockford Area Museum and Historical Society’s Pioneer Museum was built about 1894 by Dr. Frank Witter, a physician and surgeon who practiced in Rockford from around 1887 until shortly after 1900. The ground floor was leased over the years by a series of commercial businesses. The second floor, reached by an outside stairway, contained the offices of Dr. Witter and his partner in the front of the building. Beginning in January 1895, the Rockford Masonic Lodge leased the rear of the second floor for their meeting hall, an arrangement that continued for many years.
In those early days, the rural “fence Line” telephone lines radiating from Rockford to outlying farms terminated in the doctors’ offices on the second floor, where the telephone was also available to the public.
Little is known about the first commercial occupants of the main floor of this building, known as the Witter Building, but the earliest business may have been a general store. By 1901, it was occupied by Bugbee & Smith, a department store that was to be in Rockford for a number of years. In 1903, Bugbee & Smith moved to a new location and was replaced by the Walls & Kindschuh Hardware Store, which remained in the building until around 1911.
In 1911, The Rockford Register reported two new businesses in the Witter Building, evidently replacing the Walls & Kindschuh Hardware Store, which apparently was no longer in business. In 1911, newspaper ads began appearing for the Mrs. Annie Reed’s City Bakery in the Witter Building. Additionally in December of 1911, the Record reported that a “new furniture store is to be in the Witter Building”.
We don’t know how long either of these businesses might have remained there. But sometime between 1912 and 1915, Farnsworth’s Model Hardware Store moved into the Witter Building from its earlier location on the corner of First and Emma Streets. The Model Hardware occupied the building until July 1918, when the business was sold to L. M. Collins, a hardware merchant in Fairfield.
Mr. Collins planned to operate the hardware store in Rockford, while continuing to run his business in Fairfield. However, less than a year later, in May 1919, the hardware business was again sold, to T. C. Graham. Graham evidently owned the business only a short time, for by 1920 newspaper ads began appearing for the Rockford Hardware Store, under the ownership of Glen G. Ramsey. Mr. Ramsey ran his hardware business in the Witter Building until his death in 1942. His widow sold the business to James Christensen, who continued its operation until 1945.
In June, 1937, Dr. Witter, who had continued to own the building after he moved to Spokane, sold it to his son, John Witter. In June 1945, John Witter sold the building to the Rockford Masonic Lodge for $500. The Lodge made extensive alterations and improvements to the building, including adding an inside stairway, rest rooms, a kitchen, and dining and assembly rooms on the main floor. The front of the building was remodeled to remove the large plate glass display windows, giving the front the appearance it has today.
In addition to serving as the home of the Masonic Lodge and Order of the Eastern Star, after the remodel the main floor was used by other organizations and for local civic affairs during the ownership by the Masonic Lodge.
In January 2003, after a period of disuse, the Masonic Lodge sold the building to the Rockford Area Museum and Historical Society, and now it is home to the society’s Pioneer Museum.
Research by Paul Gillespie, Feb. 2010
