SPRINGFIELD, the capital city of Illinois, U.S.A., and the county seat of Sangamon county, on the Sangamon river, mo m. N.N.E. of Saint Louis. It has a municipal airport ; is on Federal highways•36 and 66; and is served by the Baltimore and Ohio, the Chicago and Alton, the Chicago and Illinois Midland, the Chicago, Springfield and St. Louis, the Illinois Central, the Illinois Traction (electric) and the Wabash railways. Pop. (1920) 59,183 (85% native white) 71,864 in 1930 by the Federal census. The city has a level site of 9.72 square miles. The State capitol (be gun in 1868 and occupied since 1876) is in the form of a Greek cross, with granite porticoes and a dome 361 ft. high. Facing it, in the same grounds, is the beautiful Centennial Memorial building (erected 1918-22, to mark the moth anniversary of the admission of Illinois into the Union), which houses the State museum and the library of the State Historical Society, with its unequalled collection of Lincolniana. Across the street in one direction is the supreme court building (1905) ; in another, the State arsenal (1902-03) ; and not far away is the executive mansion (first occu pied in 1856). The old capitol (begun in 1837 and occupied 76) is now used as the county court-house. Near the heart of the city is Lincoln's home, the only one he ever owned, which he bought two years after his marriage and occupied until after his election to the Presidency. It is owned and maintained by the State. The Lincoln tomb and monument (a granite obelisk 121 ft. high over a mausoleum) stands on an eminence in Oak Ridge cemetery, north of the city. Springfield is full of spots associated with Lin coln: sites of his law-offices, boarding-houses and friends' homes; court-rooms where he practised ; the old State-house, where he sat as representative, where he had headquarters during the cam paign of 186o, and where his body lay in state in 1865; the Wabash freight station, where he said good-bye to his old friends on leaving for the White House ; and many others. The city's parks contain 600 ac., and 2 m. N.E. are the State Fair grounds
of 376 acres. In 1924 a comprehensive city plan was officially adopted, which will make Springfield a city of unusual beauty and distinction. It provides (among many other improvements) for the development of a capitol group (around the existing State buildings) and of a municipal group (around the Lincoln home, and including an open-air forum) and for parkways connecting the two with each other, with the Lincoln monument, with the proposed Union Station and with the principal parks. Since 1911 the city has had a commission form of government. The assessed valuation of property for 1927 was $30,164,100.
Springfield is in the heart of vast coal-fields. Several seams lie under the city, one of which is worked, and about 5,000 miners make Springfield their home. The Illinois oil-fields are only 150 m. distant. Limestone, clay, oil shale, sand and gravel abound in the vicinity. The agricultural products within a so m. radius are valued at $190,000,000 annually. The city has a large wholesale and retail trade. Its manufacturing industries are numerous and diversified, with an output in 1927 valued at $23,882,139. Among the leading products are watches, agricultural implements, cast iron pipe, tractors, road graders, electric meters, shoes and miners' lamps. Bank clearings in 1926 amounted to $147,300,000. The first settlement here was made in 1818. In 1821 the village was chosen to be the county seat, and was named Springfield. In 1823 it was platted, and for a brief period was called Calhoun. It was incorporated as a town in 1832 and chartered as a city in 1840. In 1837 it was made the State capital, in place of Vandalia, and the legislature met here in Dec. 1839. From Camp Yates (within the present city limits) Grant started on July 3, 1861, as colonel of a regiment of Illinois volunteers, for his service in the Civil War. Springfield was the birthplace of Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, and the early home of Edgar Lee Masters and Brand Whitlock.