The season’s first River District Historic walking Tour will be Thursday,  July  30^th  beginning at 5:30 pm. This tour begins  across from the Rockford Public Library.

This tour will highlight many of the Historic structures we have lost to demolition. The vast majority  were very architecturally significant structures. Historic Photos will be shown of these lost gems as we walk by where they once stood. Most have been replaced with parking lots and open space.

Demolition seems to be a favorite past time of Rockford. As you will discover from this tour, these empty lots have also been responsible for creating huge economic losses that will take decades more to recover from. Renovating and restoring the structures that remain have contributed greatly to Rockford’s  revitalization. The purpose of this tour is to gain a greater understanding of what the real cost of Demolition means to our economic well-being. The loss of these beautiful buildings has been compounded by a significant economic loss that we will talk about.

The tour is  8 blocks in length and will take a 1 hour and 15 minutes.