Here’s what’s coming to the old Pump Handle Inn site in south Rockford
By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — The former home of the Pump Handle Inn at 11th Street and Harrison Avenue is being rebuilt into a large retail auto parts hub store.
AutoZone, which bought the property in mid-March, is building a $3.29 million, 32,500-square-foot retail hub at 2620 11th St., according to a city of Rockford building permit. The national automotive retailer would relocate into the larger hub from its store about a block north, which is on land owned by Illinois Bank & Trust.
The Pump Handle Inn started as a restaurant and lounge in 1964 under Walt Williamson, a gas and oil entrepreneur who also built and owned the storied Wagon Wheel Lodge in Rockton. A hotel was added in 1966, and the Pump Handle became Rockford’s version of the Wagon Wheel. It didn’t have a theater, ice rink and a golf course like the Wagon Wheel, but it boasted a year-round swimming pool, cocktail lounge, coffee shop and banquet hall.
The property started to decline after Williamson died in 1975, and it had deteriorated into a flophouse by the time it was condemned by the city in 2009, according to Rockford Register Star archives.
The property owner lost the building to foreclosure, and in late 2013 it was purchased by S&B Venture LLC. Stenstrom Construction razed the dilapidated buildings in 2014, cleared the old tanks and readied the site for development in the future.
Now, more than a decade later, AutoZone has taken over the land. AutoZone Development purchased the site for $1 million on March 14 from S&B Venture, according to a deed from the Winnebago County Clerk & Recorder’s Office.
There’s no publicly announced timeline for when the construction would complete and AutoZone would move into the new location. Calls made Wednesday to AutoZone’s corporate office were not immediately returned.
This is the second AutoZone that’s in development in the Rockford region. The nation’s largest retailer of aftermarket auto parts is also building at the former Rockford Speedway site, between Belle Tire and Club Car Wash.
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
