Global True Lithuania Encyclopedia of Lithuanian heritage worldwide

Rockford, Illinois

Rockford, Illinois's third largest city, has the Rockford Lithuanian club (716 Indiana Ave). It is located in the southern part of the city that was once populated by Lithuanians.

Rockford Lithuanian club. Usually, the Lithuanian flag also waves

Today, however, the club became multi-ethnic. Nevertheless, it proudly displays its history in the form of Lithuanian coats of arms, flags and flag colors, images of Lithuania and the club history.

The building is two-floored with the main hall on the second floor while the bar located at the ground floor level. The bar is now the most lively part of the club, open multiple days a week.

The underground bar of Rockford Lithuanian Club. There are lit patterns in the colors of the Lithuanian flag

The club now has ~250 members while it had ~500 in its heyday. Most members are of European but not Lithuanian heritage. Most of them are over 50 years old as such clubs do not appeal to the youth. The district is now Black-majority. The club moved to this new house in 1954.

Data about Lithuania is posted on the bulletin boards of the club so its members would learn more about Lithuania. Among that data, we have discovered print-outs from the True Lithuania website.

Lithuanian Club also owns a Lithuanian Park in Southern Rockford with its Lithuanian sign. Both the club halls and the park are rented for activities. The park also has bees and Joninės used to be celebrated there well after the club became non-Lithuanian-majority as even the current non-Lithuanian members try hard to keep the club's Lithuanian history alive and learn about Lithuania.

Rockford Lithuanian park (this sign is more than one mile after driving past the gate)

The importance of Lithuanians in Rockford is also marked by the fact that Rockford ethnic heritage museum (1129 S. Main Street) has dedicated one of its six galleries to Lithuanians (the other five are dedicated to far larger US minorities: Blacks, Irish, Italians, Hispanics, and Poles). The museum is volunteer-run and opens just a day per week for excursions. Each hall has its president and includes various artworks-and-crafts from the country in question.

Rockford Ethnic heritage museum

Rockford Ethnic heritage museum Lithuanian room

The museum has acquired an impressive mansion of a local 19th-century elite nearby: it is not Lithuanian but it shows the glamour the employers of Lithuanian factory workers lived back then. The massive factory where many Lithuanians worked at now stands abandoned next to the Ethnic heritage museum.

An abandoned factory near the Rockford ethnic heritage museum

Recently, the Lithuanian room has been kept by Ann Keraminas who also created many drinking straw ornaments for the museum, a peculiar Lithuanian-American tradition that Lithuanian-Americans created after being unable to find real straws in urban America (in Lithuania, such ornaments are crafted using natural straws).

Drinking straw ornaments by Anna Keraminas at the Rockford ethnic heritage museum

Rockford had a Ss. Peter and Paul Lithuanian church (617 Lincoln Avenue), established in 1911 (cornerstone lists 1929 when the new building was constructed). The church survives, however, it has been transferred to Blacks in 1985 and to Hispanics in 1992. Currently, most of the masses there are celebrated in Spanish. The church has no external Lithuanian details and few such details inside, as, unlike many Lithuanian-American churches, it never had Lithuanian stained-glass windows. There is, however, a 1949 plaque in the entrance room with lots of Lithuanian names - these are people who contributed to the organ of the church under the pastor Joseph Reikas. There is also a photo of this pastor. In a rather common design feature of the Lithuanian-American churches, this one is two-floored, with the main hall for the holy Mass on the 2nd floor and secular activity premises on the 1st floor.

Ss. Peter and Paul Lithuanian church of Rockford

Plaque with the Lithuanian names

At one time, the Rockford Lithuanian community was so important that the key national revival figures visited here on the eve of the 1918 independence.

Furthermore, in 1951, Rockford Ss. Peter and Paul church was the site of marriage for Alma Adamkienė (nee Nutautaitė) and Valdas Adamkus - a future president of Lithuania. Forced to flee by the advancing Soviets in 1944 and settling in the USA, Valdas Adamkus later returned to his homeland after its 1990 independence, being elected president of Lithuania in 1998 and serving two terms in 1998-2003 and 2004-2009.

The map

All the Lithuanian locations, described in this article, are marked on this interactive map, made by the "Destination Lithuanian America" expedition (click the link):

Interactive map of Rockford Lithuanian sites