This Is The Oldest Harley-Davidson Dealership In The WorldRideApart[email protected] (Jonathon Klein)Sun, September 20, 2026 at 12:36 PM UTCAdd us on GoogleKegel Harley-DavidsonA Harley-Davidson dealership in Illinois has now been declared as the oldest one in the world, having begun as a Motor Co. property way back in 1909.Harley-Davidson began life in 1903 when Arthur Davidson got together with his best friend William S. Harley, as well as Arthur's brothers Walter and William, and and decided to build themselves a motorcycle company. As with many small businesses in the early 1900s, it wasn't an immediate success, and took a while to become the cultural phenomenon that the brand is today.Still, it took just three years from the men building motorcycles in their backyard shed to get to a full production plant on the Juneau Ave location where the current corporate headquarters resides today in Wisconsin. A year later, Harley was showing motorcycles at the Chicago Auto Show. A year after that, it produced around 450 motorcycles. And a year after that, in 1909, Kegel Harley-Davidson of Rockford, Illinois, began selling the iconic American brand.That dealership has now been recognized as the oldest Harley-Davidson dealer in existence, still owned and operated by the Kegel family some 117 years later.Old But Not ForgottenGive Me This Adorable Honda Super Cub Tokyo Limited '80s Edition Right NowThis State Just Made It Less Expensive To Register Your Vintage SnowmobilesAdvertisementAdvertisementThere was, however, contention among the dealerships, with A.D. Farrow Harley-Davidson in Columbus, Ohio, claiming it was the one-true oldest Harley-Davidson dealership, opening its customers up to Harley in 1912. But the Kegel family, the same that started the company way back when, knew differently. They just couldn't prove it. That is until recently."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," states Kegel Harley-Davidson, adding, "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.""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," states the dealership. And in that, Harley-Davidson has now recognized Kegel's documentation and proof, and it says, yeah, Kegel is the oldest dealership in existence, rewriting a chapter of the brand's long history.Recently, the dealership celebrated the rediscovered history with an event for its customers, and saw Bill Davidson—the son of Willie G. Davidson, and the great-grandson of the original William Davidson—announce the history-making news in Milwaukee.AdvertisementAdvertisementSome say history is written. But history is still being discovered every day, as this proves.
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