2021 Rockton fire

The H.D. Jameson House is a historic house located at 900 North Prairie Street in Rockton, Illinois. Local merchant and farmer H.D. Jameson built the house in 1855. The house is designed in the Greek Revival style, which enjoyed national popularity at the time of the house's construction. The random stone exterior of the house is punctuated by sash windows and the entrance, which is flanked by sidelights. The front-facing gable roof features a wide cornice with returns. A two-story portico was added to the south side of the house in 1870.The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 14, 2003, and it is now used as a short-term rental and event space.

Hononegah Community High School is a public high school in Rockton, Illinois and is the only high school comprising Hononegah Community High School District 207. Located between Rockford and the southern border of Wisconsin, the school serves students from the towns of Rockton, Roscoe, Shirland, and parts of South Beloit. Specifically, the school districts Kinnikinnick School District 131, Prairie Hill School District 133, Rockton School District 140, and Shirland School District 134 all feed into the high school.Hononegah Community High School opened in 1923. The school is named after the Native American Hononegah, wife of Stephen Mack Jr. Stephen Mack Jr. is credited to the founding of Rockton, Illinois. The school's namesake is honored with a large mural of Hononegah in the school's main lobby. One of the unique aspects of Hononegah was its inflatable "bubble" field house, the first of its kind for any Illinois public school, until its collapse in December 2015 due to a hailstorm. It was replaced by a field house in March 2019.

The Rockton Historic District is a national historic district which encompasses much of the village of Rockton, Illinois. The district includes 208 buildings, most of which are residential; the town's commercial district was purposefully excluded from the district due to its loss of historic integrity. Greek Revival is the only architectural style used widely within the district, with 51 buildings designed in the style. Rockton was founded in 1835 by William Talcott, and most of the village's development took place between then and the Civil War. This period of development coincided with an economic boom brought by short-lived steamboat and railroad projects; by the 1870s, Rockton had been bypassed by the major railroads and was losing citizens to its more prosperous neighbors, stalling its growth.The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 2, 1978.

Rockton is a village in Winnebago County, Illinois. It is located in the Rock River Valley and is part of the Rockford metropolitan area. The population was 7,685 at the time of the 2010 census, up from 5,296 at the time of the 2000 census.

The Pecatonica River is a tributary of the Rock River, 194 miles (312 km) long, in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois in the United States. The word Pecatonica is an anglicization of two Algonquian language words: Bekaa (or Pekaa in some dialects), which means "slow", and niba, which means "water", forming the conjunction Bekaaniba or "Slow Water". It rises in the hills of southwest Wisconsin, in southwest Iowa County, 2 miles (3 km) west of Cobb. It flows south, then southeast, past Calamine and Darlington. In southeast Lafayette County it receives the East Branch Pecatonica River, approximately 8 miles (13 km) north of the state line. It flows south-southeast into Illinois, past Freeport, where it turns east, then east-northeast, receiving the Sugar River near Shirland in northern Winnebago County, 5 miles (8 km) south of the state line. It joins the Rock at Rockton, approximately 15 miles (24 km) north of Rockford.

The Macktown Historic District is a national historic district encompassing the remains of the Macktown settlement in Winnebago County, Illinois. Established in the late 1830s at the confluence of the Pecatonica and Rock Rivers, Macktown was one of the first settlements in northern Illinois. The community was a major trading post along the Galena–Chicago Trail and was the site of the region's first bridge across the Rock River.Two buildings remain standing from the original settlement. The Stephen Mack House, a Greek Revival structure built in 1839, was the home of eponymous Macktown founder and Winnebago County pioneer Stephen Mack. The Whitman Trading Post is a limestone building completed in 1846.The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 5, 1978. It is located within the Macktown Forest Preserve and is managed by Macktown Living History.

South Beloit, is a city located in Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. It is part of the Rockford Metropolitan Area, but it is also a suburban extension of Beloit, Wisconsin. South Beloit, is directly along the border of smaller cities and towns north of Rockfords border. At the 2010 census, the city's population was 7,892, up from 5,297 in 2000.

Rockton Township is located in Winnebago County, Illinois. As of the 2010 census, its population was 16,441 and it contained 6,822 housing units.

ABC Supply Stadium is a baseball park in Beloit, Wisconsin. It is primarily to be used for baseball, and is the home field of the Beloit Sky Carp, the Midwest League affiliate of the Miami Marlins. It replaced Harry C. Pohlman Field as the home for the Sky Carp beginning on August 3, 2021. ABC Supply holds the naming rights to the stadium, although the terms and length of the deal have not been disclosed. ABC Supply is owned by Hendricks Properties, the primary developer of the stadium. The Sky Carp started the 2021 season at Pohlman Field before moving to the new ballpark. The first game at ABC Supply Stadium was August 3, 2021, against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.

WBEL (1380 AM) is a 90s hits radio station in South Beloit, Illinois with studios in Janesville, Wisconsin. Established in 1948, the station is owned by Big Radio. Its programming is simulcast on translator stations W222AU (92.3 FM) in Beloit, Wisconsin and W255CZ (98.9 FM) in Janesville.

The Lathrop-Munn Cobblestone House is a 1.5-story Greek Revival-styled house built about 1848 in Beloit, Wisconsin, striking for the care with which the mason arranged the tiny cobbles. In 1977 the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.John Hackett was one of the first permanent settlers in Beloit - the first storekeeper and postmaster. He developed Hackett's Addition, the neighborhood in which the house stands, and he owned the lot on which the house was built. It's unclear if the house was there when Hackett sold the lot to Frederick A Lathrop in 1848.Regardless, the house was striking and up-scale. The style is Greek Revival, seen in the low pitch of the roof, the frieze board beneath the eaves, the cornice returns, and the simple straight limestone lintels above the windows. This was a common style for fine houses in Wisconsin in the mid-1800s. What is unusual is the cobblestone cladding - small stones rounded by wave action - and above that the care with which these stones are set. Especially on the front, they are laid in rows, and carefully matched for size within each row. Beyond that, they are matched for color, so that four rows of light-colored stones alternate with four rows of darker stones, producing faint alternating bands - a pleasing effect. Inside, the walls are plastered.Frederick Lathrop owned the house until 1864. Around the 1870s the frame wing was added at the rear of the house. Other early owners were an inventor and a physician, and later a plumber.The NRHP nomination considers this house "one of the two best preserved cobblestone houses remaining in the city of Beloit."

Club Pop House (called The Pop House) was a private teenage social and dance club located near downtown Beloit, Wisconsin at the intersection of Portland Avenue and 5th Street. The Pop House was a popular gathering spot for local high school and college students from 1946 until it closed in 1973. It was owned and operated by George Stankewitz, son of Lithuanian immigrants and a decorated World War II veteran.For dancing, the Pop House scheduled record hops and live music on weekends. It was host to many regional bands and a number of major musical acts including Conway Twitty, Bobby Vinton, Tommy Roe, Jimmy Gilmer and The Fireballs, Freddy Cannon, Johnny Tillotson, Paul and Paula, The Kingsmen, Bobby Goldsboro, and Del Shannon among others. A jukebox stocked with the latest hit records also was available.Social activities included top athletic teams in softball and basketball. An annual event, the Chili Festival in late fall featured election of a presiding "Chili Queen." Each spring brought the coronation of a "Softball Queen."The Pop House offered a lunch counter with hamburgers, French fries, pizza and soft drinks. It was noted for its specialty sandwiches with such names as the Snead, 12:01, and Smiley Special.Club Pop House was governed by an adult board of directors with established by-laws and rules of conduct. Prospective members had to be white, in the tenth grade or above and undergo a review process that included an interview with owner George Stankewitz before receiving a membership card and a key. The first African-American to receive a membership card and key was LaMont Weaver after winning the state championship with a half court shot with only seconds left for Beloit Memorial. In its heyday there were more than 600 active high school age members in a given year, a waiting list of about 100 more, and numerous "alumni." The "club" status of the Pop House was challenged in August 1965 when charges of racial bias resulted in a discrimination suit after five African-American citizens were denied service at the lunch counter. The case went to trial in November of that year and a jury cleared Mr. Stankewitz of bias charges, finding that the Pop House operated as a private club and could select its own membership.In 1972 a new eighteen-year-old drinking age law was enacted in Wisconsin. Owner Stankewitz began serving alcohol at the Pop House in November of that year, thus excluding the under-eighteen crowd. With a subsequent decline in business, Stankewitz announced his retirement and closed the Club Pop House in April 1973 after 27 years of continuous operation.