Springfield, Illinois

Springfield is the capital of Illinois. Though small in comparison to the “Windy City” of Chicago, which was the third-largest city in the United States as of 2023, Springfield remains the seat of the Illinois state government, as well as the county seat of Sangamon County. Springfield also takes its place in US history as the city in which Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president, began his political career.

Landscape

Springfield, Illinois, is located in central Illinois, in the Lower Illinois River Basin and in the midst of a temperate prairie habitat. The city occupies 59.48 square miles, according to the US Census Bureau. The downtown portion of Springfield is organized into a regular nine-by-nine street grid, with numbered streets in one direction intersecting with named avenues. Many of the streets in downtown Springfield are named for historical figures, places, or events. The downtown is primarily commercial and governmental and is surrounded by residential neighborhoods.

The city is divided into more than twenty neighborhoods, as recognized by the city, though residents of the city have named a number of additional neighborhoods. There are also a number of villages within Springfield, which stand apart as separate municipal zones. Among the prominent neighborhoods of Springfield are Twin Lakes, Oak Ridge, Lincoln Park, Hawthorne Place, and Enos Park.

Springfield experiences four distinct seasons and temperatures range from 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit on average in the summer and 30 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit on average in the winter months. The city receives an average of 37 inches of precipitation each year. The area is subject to a large number of tornadoes, including two significant tornadoes that struck the city in March 2006.

People

According to an estimate from the US Census Bureau in 2022, Springfield has a population of 113,273. The population has been decreasing, with a -1.0 percent reduction between 2020 and 2022. About 69.7 percent of the population is White, 20.3 percent is Black or African American, 3.1 percent is Hispanic or Latino, and 3.1 percent is Asian.

Springfield has a relatively older population, with approximately 74 percent of the population over the age of twenty-one, 18 percent age sixty-five and older, and 22 percent under the age of eighteen. As of 2022, the median age in Springfield is 40.1.

Springfield hosts a number of cultural festivals and fairs annually, including the Old Capitol Art Fair, held in the Old Capitol building, and the Illinois State Fair, held in the city proper. Springfield is also home to several unique festivals, including the International Carillon Festival (a carillon is a unique and heavy instrument, composed of fixed, tuned bells operated by striking a keyboard), the Liturgical Arts Festival, and the International Route 66 Mother Road Festival.

Economy

Springfield’s economy is a functional blend of public and private enterprise. The city serves as the headquarters for several national insurance agencies and more than 165 other companies and business associations. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the largest employers in the city as of March 2022 were in the areas of government and education and health services.

The health care and services sectors and the industrial production industry are among Springfield’s largest private employers. Springfield’s health care industry has built a well-received regional reputation, and the city’s heart surgery institute is nationally known. Tourism is another of the city’s major industries, largely because of the many historic landmarks located in and around the city. Downtown Springfield features an open-air trolley system and a system of tour buses, which take visitors on tours of Springfield's most popular historic locations. By 2018, institutions such as the University of Illinois Springfield had begun making contributions to a relatively new business incubator called Innovate Springfield to foster business ideas and both start and grow new ventures in the city.

Springfield has a high employment rate with an estimated 3.9 percent unemployment rate in December 2023, according to the BLS. The median household income was measured between 2018 and 2022 at approximately $62,419 (in 2022 dollars), according to the US Census Bureau. Springfield has a lower cost of living than many cities of comparable size and is therefore attractive to many families from surrounding areas.

Landmarks

Construction of the Illinois State Capitol took more than twenty years—from 1869 to the end of 1888. It is considered the tallest non-skyscraper capitol building in the United States, reaching a height of 361 feet at the top of the building’s dome. The current state capitol is the sixth state capitol building of Illinois and was constructed in the architectural style of the French Renaissance.

The fifth (previous) state capitol is renowned as the capitol building used by former President Lincoln’s legislature. It is preserved in Springfield as a historical landmark and state museum. The capitol served as the courthouse for Sangamon County from 1876 to 1966 and became badly damaged through deterioration. The Illinois State Historical Society dismantled the building stone by stone, beginning in 1966, carefully numbering each piece, and then reconstructed the building over the following three years.

Springfield is home to some of the state’s most prominent ecological attractions. The Lincoln Memorial Garden contains five miles of preserved woodland and planted forest. The Washington Park Botanical Garden collects not only native vegetation but also has collections of botanical specimens from around the world. Visitors to the city can also visit Henson Robinson Zoo, a small zoological park with a collection of over eighty species.

Many of Springfield’s most famous and visited landmarks are associated with the city’s most famous resident, Abraham Lincoln. These include Lincoln’s Tomb, built from marble from four foreign countries—France, Italy, Belgium, and Spain—and several different states; the Lincoln Home National Historic Site; the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum; and the Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices State Historic Site.

History

Before the arrival of European settlers, American Indian tribes occupied the Springfield area. European settlers, mostly trappers and traders, began arriving between 1818 and 1819 and formed a small settlement in the region, choosing the location because of its proximity to the Sangamon River.

The first recorded settler to build a permanent home in the area was John Kelly, who constructed a cabin along the Sangamon River in 1821 (now the corners of Second and Jefferson Streets). The following year, three of the town’s founders, Zachariah Peters, William Drennan, and Rivers Cormack, recorded their intention to found a new town extending from Kelly’s fields.

Springfield became the county seat for Sangamon County in 1821, and was originally named Calhoun, after Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. Fertile soil fed by water from the Sangamon River brought settlers from surrounding states to the town and helped to establish Sangamon County as a productive agricultural area.

The town was incorporated in 1832 and renamed Springfield, as Senator John Calhoun’s popularity had waned in the ensuing years. Abraham Lincoln’s family relocated to Sangamon County in 1831, living in the town of New Salem. Lincoln studied law in New Salem and worked in a variety of jobs, including as a store clerk and a surveyor. He also began his political career in Sangamon County as a member of the Illinois State Legislature in 1834.

During his first term as a member of the legislature, Lincoln played a role in determining the location of the state capital and supported the proposal to move the state government to Springfield from the town of Vandalia. Lincoln and his eight legislative associates, known as the “long nine” because each of the men in the coalition was over 6 feet tall, became a powerful political coalition, responsible for much of the state’s legislative development in the 1830s. Springfield was named the capital of Illinois in 1837, and over the next decade, the population rapidly grew. The railroads reached Springfield in 1852, bringing a further boost to the local economy and population.

Abraham Lincoln served in the state legislature until 1841, while he built his law practice into a profitable enterprise. After serving a term in Congress, from 1947 to 1949, and running in an unsuccessful but widely publicized congressional campaign in 1958, Lincoln had gained sufficient stature to warrant nomination as the presidential candidate for the newly formed Republican Party. Lincoln was elected and left Springfield in 1961, delivering a farewell address at the Great Western Depot, now called the Lincoln Depot and preserved as a historic site.

As the city’s importance as an agricultural center began to decline in the late nineteenth century, the coal mining industry began to emerge as the city’s primary industry. Coal miners from around the state relocated to Springfield, helping to bolster the city’s population and diversify the economy. In 1908, racial violence erupted in the city, deepening the racial segregation of the Springfield population and prompting many African Americans to leave. Many of the segregated neighborhoods that emerged at the turn of the twentieth century remained more or less segregated throughout the century.

As the city continued to grow, educational institutions were established, including Springfield College of Illinois in 1929 and the Lincoln Land Community College in 1967. These were followed shortly thereafter by an extended campus of the University of Illinois in 1969. Industrial manufacturing also replaced coal mining as the city’s primary industry, following state government, which remained the city’s primary employer.

In the mid-twentieth century, the government of the city of Springfield invested heavily in the tourism industry, using the city’s legacy as the historic home of Abraham Lincoln to bolster the economy. The city’s collection of artifacts commemorating the life and career of Abraham Lincoln remained one of the city’s primary assets into the early twenty-first century.

Trivia

• The Cozy Dog Drive-In in Springfield claims to have been the first establishment to serve corn dogs, a popular snack food, on sticks. The restaurant remains a popular attraction on the famed US Route 66.
• The city is home to a fifty-foot totem pole topped by an eight-foot statue of Abraham Lincoln. Standing outside the Illinois State Museum, the pole was carved by the Tlingit, an indigenous Alaskan tribe.
• The State of Illinois gets its name from the Illinois River, which was itself named for the Native Americans who lived along the river when French explorers first visited the area in the late seventeenth century. The Illinois and Peoria Indians used the word “iliniwok” to mean “warriors,” and the French altered the word to “Illinois.”

Bibliography

Andreasen, Bryon C. Looking for Lincoln in Illinois: Lincoln’s Springfield. Southern Illinois UP, 2015.

De La roche, Roberta Senechal. In Lincoln’s Shadow: The 1908 Race Riot in Springfield, Illinois. Southern Illinois UP, 2008.

Mann, Curtis, and Melinda Garvert. Images of Modern America: Springfield. Arcadia Publishing, 2017.

Paull, Bonnie E., and Richard E. Hart. Lincoln’s Springfield Neighborhood. The History Press, 2015.

"QuickFacts: Springfield (City), Illinois." US Census Bureau, US Department of Commerce, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/springfieldcityillinois/RHI125221#RHI125221. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.

"Springfield, IL, Area Economic Summary." Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Dept. of Labor, 1 May 2024, www.bls.gov/regions/midwest/summary/blssummary‗springfield‗il.pdf. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.