Loves Park

Loves Park got its name from Malcolm A. Love, a Rockford industrialist and alderman who, in 1901, purchased 236 acres of land along the east bank of the Rock River just a few miles north of Rockford. Love used the property as a private retreat. Soon thereafter, a railroad was built through the area, and in the decades that followed, residences and businesses started to arrive. The city incorporated in 1947 with a population of 4,500. Once it was established, all the elements of a modern com...