Loves Park got its name from Malcolm A. Love, a Rockford industrialist and alderman who, in 1901, purchased 236 acres of land along the east bank of the Rock River just a few miles north of Rockford. Love used the property as a private retreat. Soon thereafter, a railroad was built through the area, and in the decades that followed, residences and businesses started to arrive. The city incorporated in 1947 with a population of 4,500. Once it was established, all the elements of a modern community followed, including police and fire departments, a library, churches, gas stations, restaurants, and other businesses. Since then, the city of almost 24,000 has continued to prosper and is now home to the annual Memorial Day Young at Heart Festival, which brings in people from all across northern Illinois, and RiverHawks Stadium, home of the Rockford RiverHawks Frontier League baseball team.