Nearby Attractions

Visitor Information

Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau

The official website for area visitor information.

 

Nicholas Conservatory & Gardens (1 mile from Garden)

Situated along the banks of the Rock River, Nicholas Conservatory & Gardens is the third largest conservatory in Illinois, offering an 11,000-square-foot plant exhibition area complete with water features, seating areas, and sculptures, all in a tropical plant setting.

 

Burpee Museum of Natural History (2 miles from Garden)

Home to Jane the T-Rex, Paleofest, and a vast collection focused on the natural history of the Rock River Valley region and comparative material from all over North America and the world.

 

Rockford Art Museum (2 miles from Garden)

Offering 17,000 square feet of exhibition space within its three galleries, RAM features contemporary surveys of regional and national artwork as well as 20th Century American art, American Impressionist paintings, historical and contemporary photography, and pieces by self-taught African American artists.

 

Discovery Center Museum (2 miles from Garden)

Named among the 12 Best Children’s Museums in the U.S. by Forbes Magazine.  The museum consists of over 250 exciting hands-on exhibits spread over a two-floor area plus a giant outdoor multi-level science park.

 

Coronado Performing Arts Center (3 miles from Garden)

The Coronado opened in 1927 and features authentic rococo style which has been carefully restored to its original grand style as a state-of-the-art performance and entertainment facility.  Check their website for upcoming events.

 

Laurent House (3 miles from Garden)

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Laurent House is the only building that world-renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed for a disabled client.  Designed in 1949, using his Usonian hemicycle style of intersecting arcs, this organic architecture drew on Wright’s life-time interest in Japanese art and architecture that married natural materials, such as the House’s Chicago common brick and Tidewater red cypress, with the indoor and outdoor environments.  In 2012, the Laurent House Foundation, an independent not-for-profit, purchased the House, the original architectural drawings, the Wright-designed furniture, and the Laurent’s personal effects.  A two year extensive restoration followed.

 

Ethnic Heritage Museum (4 miles from Garden)

Known today as The Ethnic Heritage Museum it is here that you will find six fascinating galleries devoted to the primary immigrant groups that settled in southwest Rockford, IL including African-American, Hispanic, Irish, Italian, Lithuanian and Polish.  By comparing early with current lifestyles, the museum strives to bridge the gap between yesterday and today encouraging visitors to relive the past with a clear focus on Rockford’s bright future.

 

Tinker Swiss Cottage (4 miles from Garden)

The Tinker Swiss Cottage is a historic house museum and park in Rockford.  It was built as a personal residence by Robert Hall Tinker between 1865-1870.  The Tinker family, the sole occupants of the Swiss Cottage, left their home to the Rockford Park District and their household belongings to trustees after seventy-five years of residence.  Filled with original furnishings, artwork, diaries, clothing  and household items, the Cottage is a rich time capsule of life during the Victorian Era.  The Cottage is also one of only a handful of Swiss-style homes remaining in the United States.

 

Klehm Arboretum & Botanic Garden (5 miles from Garden)

Encompassing 155 acres in southwest Rockford, Klehm Arboretum has an assortment of plant life unlike any other natural area in the United States, including many unique species from throughout the United States that normally do not thrive in this region, plus the Midwest’s most vigorous evergreen collection. Klehm participates in the AHS Reciprocal Program.

 

Midway Village Museum (6 miles from Garden)

Go back in time to visit a Victorian Village comprised of 26 historical buildings filled with artifacts of the era as well as several beautiful 19th century gardens that depict life in Northern Illinois from 1890 to 1910.