Few people in Sterling and Rock Falls today can remember what life was like 100 years ago, and even those whose memories can gaze back that far are seeing things through the eyes of a child.

The memories have likely faded with age, but were the city’s centenarians able to restore the polish to the past, they’d see a pair of cities firmly established and full of potential, with factories forging a path ahead — industry and innovation leading them through the Roaring 20s, years before a black cloud would bring a Wall crashing down.

The Twin Cities — Sterling founded in 1834 and Rock Falls in 1867 — were still growing, experimenting, inventing and dreaming, finding their way in a world that was doing the same. A century later, the decisions made, plans laid out, and everyday pursuits form a surprisingly rich snapshot of what the communities were becoming.

A century ago, horses still shared the streets with automobiles. Communication was still evolving, with radio connecting communities to the world around them and TV’s reign still decades away. And two cities separated by a Rock but only a stone’s throw away from one another were still growing.

Though carving out a character of their own, Sterling and Rock Falls mirrored many cities similar in size.

Communities were beginning to modernize even as tradition remained firmly rooted. Downtown storefronts were the heart of the business community. Manufacturing was a powerhouse fueled by ingenuity and industry. Civic leaders debated how to prepare the towns not just for the next year, but for the next generation.

Some ideas burned brightly but briefly, others endured, and some adapted to changing times.

Let’s turn back the clock to 1926 — a year when Sterling and Rock Falls were laying down pieces of their future, one careful step, bold idea and enduring story at a time. They remind us that history is more than just major milestones: It’s made in barber chairs, blueprints, workshops, classrooms, patrol routes, athletic fields and even unfinished plans.

A century of scissors

Sterling Barber Shop, 4 E. Third St., has been lowering ears since 1926, and is observing its 100th anniversary.

The business has always been downtown. Ray and Annabelle Blum opened the Blum Barber Shop and Annabelle Beauty Parlor on the street level of the former Galt Hotel in 1926 as the town’s only combined men’s-and-women’s hair salon. After a few years, the business moved next to the Sterling Theater. Its building (and the theater) suffered a fire in late 1943. James Bradley joined Blum in 1927, and he took over the business in 1944 and rebuilt the shop. It has been in the same location since, and also has maintained its three-booth setup.

Upon acquiring the business, Bradley renamed it to Bradley’s Barber Shop. He owned it until 1968, when Wayne Larson and Fred Mann bought it and gave it its current Sterling Barber Shop name. Larson later became sole owner until his death in 1990. Tim Regan, who had been cutting for Larson since 1970, and Jean Dempsey (since 1986) took over the shop when Larson died. Regan and Dempsey sold it in 2008 to current owner Richie Jomant, who has since decked the place out with golf and Chicago sports memorabilia, a flat-panel television and an aquarium.

True to the old style barber shops, the familiar red, white and blue barber’s pole remains outside the front door.

How about a coliseum?

Sterling’s Chamber of Commerce (then called the Association of Commerce) asked its members in 1926 about what their town needed. The idea that received the most attention was the building of a coliseum: a public meeting place that would eventually serve as today’s home to city government. Other popular ideas were the expansion of Sterling Community Hospital, which built a new wing in 1927, and the paving of state Route 88 south of Rock Falls to near Sheffield.

The genesis of the coliseum idea came from issues during the town’s Pageant of Progress event that year, where tent rentals became a budgetary concern. The idea was brought up during a Chamber dinner at the Elks Club in January 1926 by B.F. Kreider, an executive with the Senneff-Herr candy company in town, who talked about how the town had no building that could accommodate large crowds, and that Sterling would miss out on attracting conventions that would seek cities that had one. Financing plans were made by Chicago financier George Mohrbacher in October 1926 during a meeting at the Lincoln Tavern.

In the five years that followed, construction costs, site selection and the Great Depression delayed the building of the Coliseum, which was completed in 1931 and overseen by architect Elmer Behrns. It was built on the former property of the Rock Falls Manufacturing Co. According to a May 6, 1931, issue of the Gazette, the new Coliseum combined “modernistic unity and classic beauty.” The building once had a roof garden where dances were held, on a floor made of smooth-as-glass Haydite concrete. Over the years, several renovations have made the building exclusively into an office setup.

First verse for a new hearse

Eureka Manufacturing Co. in Rock Falls was established in 1871 and made classroom equipment, hotel and church furniture and stock cutters before adding hearses and ambulances to its fold in 1910, mirroring the rise of automobiles at the time.

During the 1920s, each vehicle was manufactured one by one, unlike assembly line production. Wilbur S. Myers joined Eureka in 1921 as a body builder, and five years later developed a three-way, side-loading hearse. The invention resulted in the table in a hearse being pulled out three ways: from each side and through the rear door.

The table extended out three feet from either side to allow for easy loading and unloading of a casket. The driver’s and right-front passenger’s seat slid forward underneath the dashboard giving the table-mounted casket sufficient room rotate into the coach. Upon getting a patent approval, Eureka had exclusive rights to build the tables for 10 years, and also built them for competitors.

Myers eventually rose in the company ranks to become president in 1945. Eureka closed its doors in 1965.

The golf course that never came

The only golf option in the Twin Cities available to residents 100 years ago was the Rock River County Club east of Rock Falls. Bringing a course north of the river was an idea of Sterling resident LaVerne A. Miller, who designed other courses throughout Illinois. Miller also built some of the first airplane hangars at the former Sterling Municipal Airport (where Benny’s Red Apple is today) in 1929.

In 1926, he proposed an 18-hole course, nine more than Rock River had at the time, clubhouse, 25-acre lake and children’s play area at I-Del-Wood, located on the Lincoln Highway near Blue Goose Road west of town. However, this ambitious project was abandoned not long after construction began. Miller would go on to start an engineering company in Streator. Sterling finally got a golf course of its own when Prairie View (now Emerald Hill) opened in 1939 east of town, and the now-closed Lake View Country Club opened west of town on Hazel Road in 1963.

Battery powered community

Sterling businessmen A.W. Wheeler and J.W. Allen, and attorney John Stager purchased the Mogul Battery Company in Plano in April 1926 and brought it to Sterling. The company was founded in 1920 by W.K. Henning, who sought to improve the functionality of automotive, radio and farm lighting batteries. As automobiles became more commonplace during the Roaring ’20s, demand soared and distribution challenges led to the sale of the company. Wheeler owned Hardware Products Co. in town, and had been distributing Mogul’s batteries for the past two years.

The factory also sold Champion and AC spark plugs and other automotive equipment from its facility at 406 Ave. A – a building that served many purposes until it was razed in 1993. Mogul closed in 1931.

Improvements in police dispatch

Radio communication is commonplace in police communication today, but it took much more work to communicate to those on the beat 100 years ago. This changed in Sterling in the fall of 1926 so that on-duty officers throughout town didn’t have to return to the police station to be informed of things.

Sterling City Council approved the purchase of eight signal units from the Gamewell Company of Chicago to place throughout the city: seven units placed within the business and manufacturing areas in town, and one more in the First Ward. Each box was equipped with a telephone so an officer could call into the station or receive instructions from it (noted by a glowing light at the station).

Fiddle-ette on the Roof

Edwin Berge, a music teacher at schools in both Sterling and Rock Falls, sought a way to teach more students on string instruments without the costly expense of buying the actual instruments. In 1926, Berge began work on the Fiddle-ette, a smaller and cheaper fiddle-like instrument that could teach students concepts such as bowing and fingering. Playing on them also resulted in a sound that was lighter than that of the real thing.

After three years, Berge’s invention came to fruition with the help of local manufacturer Carl W. Mott, who owned a factory behind his Dixon Avenue home. Mott, who had begun his career by making butter churns and wood wheels for Rich Toys, began production of the Fiddle-ette in 1929. The lineup was later expanded to include the Viola-ette, Cello-ette, and Bass-ette. Although Mott manufactured the product, distribution was handled by the Gamble Hinged Music Company of Chicago, whose logo graced each product.

Unfortunately for Berge, his budding business became a casualty of the Great Depression when the Gamble Hinged Music Company closed. Today, Berge’s “Fiddle-ette” and other off-springs are rare collectibles.

Football was Pignatelli’s game

Carlo Pignatelli is the first Twin Citian to play professional football. Before he played for the Cleveland Indians of the National Football League, the Rock Falls native honed his gridiron skills at the local high school, where he graduated in 1926.

Pignatelli, a halfback and left guard, led his high school teams to an undefeated 1924 Rock River Conference championship (9-0) and runner-up the following year (8-1). He also was the first Rock Falls High School athlete to earn letters in three varsity sports in each of his four years attending it, having also played basketball and track. Initially, Pignatelli attended the University of Iowa on a basketball scholarship, but later turned his sights toward football, where he was a Hawkeyes’ quarterback for three years.

In 1930, Pignatelli played for the Ironton Tanks semi-professional Ohio League and played on a team that scored victories against two National Football League teams: the Chicago Bears and New York Giants. Pignatelli would join the NFL ranks the following year, playing seven games and starting in three of them as a halfback for the Indians. He later lived in Sterling, where he died in 1964. His brother, Louis, served as Rock Falls’ mayor for 17 years.