The first newspapers in Rockford, Illinois were The Rock River Express and the Rockford Star, both first published in 1840. Both papers lasted only a year. The Winnebago Forum, renamed The Republican in 1845, was the first city paper to have a lengthy publishing period (1842-1862). The Rockford Morning Star first published in 1888. It merged with the Rockford Daily Register-Gazette in 1928. Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms purchased the paper two years later, and again split the two papers, publishing the Morning Star as a morning daily. The paper was purchased by the Gannett Company in 1967, who merged the last two remaining Rockford papers in 1979 to create the Rockford Register Star.[2]
The Rockford Morning Star Building was constructed during negotiations for the 1928 merge. However, the building was only used for two years; after its acquisition by Simms, a new tower was built on the other side of the Rock River. The building remained in the possession of the Simms family, who leased it to the George Rogers Clark Mutual Company. It was eventually absorbed into the Pioneer Life Insurance Company. The company bought the building from the Simms family in 1946. The company moved to Schaumburg in 1993 and henceforth only used the Rockford building for storage and mailing. The company merged into Conseco, Inc. in 1996.[2]
The building was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1999. It was listed as a contributing property to the West Downtown Rockford Historic District in 2007.[1]
