A Cool Piece of Rockford History Still Stands 150 Years After it Was Last Used

Rockford, Illinois was founded in 1834. The first automobile in America was on the road in 1871.

Somewhere in between, concrete horse and carriage hitching posts were erected in Rockford.

In the 140 some odd years since the first car hit the roads in the Forest City, concrete hitching posts for horses and carriages were deemed no longer useful.

I'm certainly not saying we need to dig them up but, but a piece of Rockford history is right in front of our face and we cruise by it daily and don't think much about it.

I have seen these concrete posts before in Rockford and couldn't quite figure out what they are.

Thankfully, a co-worker explained that coachmen would hook up to these poles to keep their horse (and carriage) in place.

The horse and carriage post in the photo is on Avon Street between West State and School Street.

As of right now, there are only a few others that exist in town.

It's kind of funny, we spend so much time worrying about buildings that either need to be demolished or restored to their former glory that sometimes we miss the little things in Rockford that show its age and history. I hope these concrete horse and carriage hitching posts stick around forever.

If you don't like these concrete hitching posts, maybe they can be repurposed into charging stations for our electric cars?

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Sweet Lenny is the brand manager of 97ZOK, Q98.5, and Operations Manager for Townsquare Media Rockford. Catch him afternoons 3 to 7 on 97ZOK. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and like his page on Facebook.