By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — A pair of upstairs rooms of the historic Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum, 411 Kent St., have been repaired and restored to match their original Victorian charm.
The original floors were sanded and restored, cracked plaster and water damage was fixed, and new wallpaper that matches the texture and colors of the era was installed.
“It is bringing it back to the 1800s, where when you walk in here you feel that you’ve stepped back in time. You’re experiencing what the Tinkers would have experienced, or a family like the Tinkers would have experienced,” said Samantha Hochmann, Tinker’s executive director. “It’s great to feel like you’re with the Tinkers, that history has not died and gone away. It’s still active and still alive.”
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Tinker cut the ribbon on the improvements Tuesday in a celebration with city and Rockford Park District officials, the Greater Rockford Chamber of Commerce and the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois, which provided grant funding to pay for the work.
Tinker Swiss Cottage was built in phases between 1865 and 1870, with the recently restored rooms being a part of the second phase of the work. The property was initially home to Robert Tinker, a former Rockford mayor and founding member of the Rockford Park District. The historic home rests along a limestone bluff overlooking Keith Creek on the city’s southwest side.
“It’s really an amazing gem in Rockford,” City Attorney Nick Meyer said. “It has connected us to our past. Every kid who’s gone to school here at some point has gone to this museum.”
The rooms were once a nursery and the living quarters of Tinker’s second wife, Jessie Dorr Hurd Tinker, who was the niece of his first wife, Mary.
The ceiling and walls had heavily cracked over the years, and at some point water had seeped in and damaged the wallpaper. Blue Ribbon Premier Hardwoods handled the floor restoration while Midwest Painting & Decorating did the plaster work and installed the new wallpaper. The wallpaper is a mix seafoam green with pink roses that matches a color palette for the era and the region.
“The wallpaper that’s been brought in is not the original wallpaper to the house, but it is the original to the Victorian era,” Hochmann said. “It’s on historic paper that is thicker than our modern wallpaper. It’s not vinyl. It’s actually a printed, painted wallpaper. When you get close to it, it looks like someone painted on to it.”
The project was funded by an $11,500 grant from the Donald V. and Britta A. Peterson Memorial Fund of the Community Foundation.
“I’m so honored that this sits in my ward,” Alderwoman Gabrielle Torina said. “I love that I can be in one century over there and step foot here and I’m in a different one.”
Hochmann said it’s not just a beautification project. The work also enriches our community’s knowledge and education about Rockford’s history.
“We are so thrilled to have Jessie’s room and the nursery brought back to their original Victorian grandeur,” she said. “Robert wrote in his journal that he only wanted to build a home to give Rockford a name. We certainly believe he did so, and we are honored to have the privilege to be able to continue to preserve this historic national landmark and continue to give Rockford that special name.”
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas