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1940 Map of Springfield

Name: 1940 Topographic Map of Springfield
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1959
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1959

About this map

The capital city of Springfield serves as a dense rail hub at the start of the 1940s, situated at the confluence of the Wabash Railroad, Illinois Central RR, and the Baltimore and Ohio RR. The urban center is flanked by established recreation and civic sites, including Washington Park and the State Fair Grounds. To the north, the Sangamon River meanders through a landscape of wetlands like Horseshoe Lake and Halfmoon Lake, providing a sharp contrast to the rigid grid of the city.

Tracing the rural outskirts reveals an era of localized education and aviation history, notably the Lindbergh Air Mail Field and a dense network of country schools such as Cottage Hill Sch and Sugar Point Sch. Significant landmarks such as the St Johns Sanitarium and Camp Butler Cem mark the eastern approach to the city, while the creation of Lake Springfield to the south signifies the era's major infrastructure shifts.