Rockford Is Home to the World’s Oldest Harley Dealership

Rockford is home to plenty of businesses with interesting stories, but one local motorcycle dealership just uncovered a piece of history that is pretty incredible.

Famous Rockford Business

If you’ve lived in the Rockford area for any amount of time, chances are you’ve driven past Kegel Harley-Davidson on Harrison Avenue. Maybe you ride. Maybe motorcycles aren’t your thing at all. Either way, there’s a pretty good chance you know the name.

And now Rockford has something REALLY cool to brag about.

I've often heard that Kegel Harley-Davidson is the oldest Harley dealership in the world, but now it's officially official... from Harley-Davidson Motor Company itself!

Oldest Harley-Davidson Dealership

As a born and raised Rockfordian, I absolutely LOVE stuff like this. Too often we overlook the really cool history sitting right in our own backyard, and the Kegel story is pretty incredible.

According to Kegel Harley-Davidson:

Back in August 1909, a decision was made by 20-year-old Joseph Kegel to purchase the motorcycle and bicycle store he had been working at. That store happened to sell Harley-Davidson® motorcycles.
Decades passed, future generations came about and took ownership, and the exact purchase date was lost to time. When the question came up in 1996 about what dealership has been continuously operating the longest, Joseph’s descendants didn’t have any definitive proof and relied on the research and documentation available at that time, which supported a March 30, 1912 start date.

That 1912 start date has long earned Kegel Harley-Davidson in Rockford the title of oldest family-owned Harley-Davidson dealership in the world, while the "oldest dealership" title went to A.D. Farrow Harley-Davidson in Columbus, Ohio... but not anymore.

Kegel Harley-Davidson said:

The 3rd and 4th generations knew the dealership was older and that the proof had to exist somewhere in the depths of newspapers and long-forgotten archives. The determination to find proof and the advancement of technology has led to a recent historical discovery…The August 9, 1909 purchase date.

On September 12, 2026, Harley-Davidson Motor Company officially confirmed that Kegel Harley-Davidson in Rockford is not only the world’s oldest family-owned Harley dealership, but the world’s oldest Harley dealership, period.

Think about that for a second.

One Rockford-area family has been selling and supporting Harley-Davidson motorcycles for more than 117 years. That's a pretty darn cool thing to be able to say about Rockford!