Evolution of Route 66 in Springfield, IL
A few days ago, a couple of messages were posted by me and others on the Route 66 Yahoo Group concerning incorrect signage of Historic Route 66 through Springfield, Illinois, along with questions about the changes in routing that occurred in 1930 and 1932 in Springfield and on the alignment south to Staunton. Some of this information comes from research done by “Road Scholar” Carl Johnson.
U.S. Highway 66 was created along with all of the other original U.S. numbered highways when the first map was approved by the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO). As in all states, the U.S. routes in Illinois were placed on existing state public highways. Originally, 66 followed State Bond Issue (SBI) Route 4 from Chicago to the McKinley Bridge over the Mississippi River in Venice, Illinois. In 1930, the alignment was moved away from SBI 4 from Springfield to Staunton, following SBI 126 from Springfield to Litchfield, and SBI 16 from Litchfield to Staunton.
Prior to 1918, the State’s role in road building was to help county and township highway departments with design and planning of roads and bridges and to administer the State Aid and Federal Aid programs. In 1918, the voters of Illinois ratified “An Act in relation to the construction by the State of Illinois of a State-wide system of durable hard-surfaced roads upon public highways of the State and the provision of means for the payment of the cost therof by the issue of bonds of the State of Illinois.” The law would come to be known as the $60 Million Highway Act, and it was the first legislation to authorize direct “construction by the State of Illinois,” rather than simply providing funding and design aid to local highway departments.
Each of the SBI routes authorized by the Act, numbered 1 through 46, were mandated by the act to connect some specific municipalities; the Illinois Division of Highways was given the authority to choose the specific right-of-way and alignment. The Act described SBI 4 as follows:
Thus, SBI 4 was mandated to connect Springfield to Edwardsville via Carlinville. The 1918 Road Act also created SBI 16, which would become important to the Route 66 story later:
The important section for U.S. 66 purposes was the stretch of SBI 16 that would place hard surfaces upon the road between Litchfield and Staunton.
In all cases, the SBI routes would follow existing public highways and would use pavements that had been previously constructed using State Aid or Federal Aid. Within cities and towns, existing streets would also be utilized where practical. In areas outside of municipal limits, existing State Aid pavement considered acceptable according to State quality standards was utilized where practical; in most cases this existing pavement was sixteen feet wide and followed section lines. As the state building program continued, new right-of-way was acquired for wider pavements and elimination of right-angle turns. The state had no jurisdiction or funds for constructing pavements within municipalities of greater than 2500 in population. In Springfield and other large cities, the SBI routes were built to the corporate limit. In 1923, the state was granted permits to mark the routes within large cities as an aid to the traveler.
The Division of Highways started publishing Route Bulletins in 1924, designed to inform the traveling public of the conditions and pavements they would experience on the evolving SBI system. The 1927 Route Bulletin was the first to contain a map of the SBI routes through Springfield:
Anyone who has driven the “Historic Route 66″ alignments as marked currently by the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) can instantly see that the route shown here for SBI 4 as of 1927 bears little resemblance to what is now marked with brown-and-white signs as “Historic Route 66 1926-1930.” It is clear from this Route Bulletin map that SBI 4, and Route 66, did NOT follow the currently-marked route prior to 1930. (We will see as we go here where that incorrect routing had its genesis.) Is is also clear that the correct original routing of U.S. 66 and SBI 4 was: entering Springfield from the north on Peoria St., veer south on 9th Street, turn west on Enos, south on 6th Street, west on Capitol Ave., south on 2nd Street, west on South Grand, and south on West Grand (now known as MacArthur Blvd).
Another Road Act was ratified in 1924, calling for an additional $100 million in bonds for road building to complete the original 46 SBI routes and to add many shorter connection routes to the system. Included within the new routes was SBI 126:
Legal challenges to the new law, and the mandate that all of the original 46 routes had to be completed first, delayed the start of work on SBI 126 and the other new routes until 1928. The 1928 Division of Highways Annual Report showed that the state had grand plans for SBI 126 once it was completed:
The dotted line from Springfield to Staunton via Carlinville indicates a “temporary” routing of U.S. 66, and the solid line through Litchfield indicates that this was the intended permanent routing. This brings up the intriguing possibility that if the 1924 $100 Million Road Act had not been delayed, and therefore work on SBI 126 could have been started four years earlier, 66 would have never followed the “temporary” routing along SBI 4 through Carlinville.
The 1929 Route Bulletin showed no changes to SBI 4 (still 66), but did acknowledge the new presence of a portion of SBI 126:
Above, we see SBI 126 heading south out of Springfield on 6th Street. The same Route Bulletin indicates 13.9 miles of completed pavement on SBI 126:
So, as of 1929, the pavement of SBI 126 ends 6 miles south of Cotton Hill. Clearly, 126 was not yet ready for “prime time” as a U.S. highway alignment, but that would change just a year later. Here is the description of SBI 126 from the 1930 Route Bulletin:
Only 0.6 miles of SBI 126 was gravel as of this Route Bulletin, the rest had hard surfaces. The routing of SBI 4 and 126 remained the same through Springfield as shown in the 1929 bulletin map (above), but now U.S. 66 could take its permanent alignment. At 6th and Capitol, 66 continued south on 6th Street with 126, rather than turning west on Capitol with SBI 4.
There were no changes shown in the 1931 Route Bulletins, but a major change in 1932:
Here, we see major routing changes to SBI 4 and SBI 126/U.S. 66 within Springfield. 66 still entered Springfield along Peoria Rd. from the north, then veered onto 9th Street as before. Eliminated was the jog west on Enos–instead, 66 went straight south on 9th to South Grand, then south on 6th Street with SBI 126. Also striking here is a new re-route of SBI 4, parting company with 66 north of the Fair Grounds (Taintor Road), south on 5th Street, west on North Grand, and again south on 2nd Street. This clearly represents a NEW alignment of SBI 4, separate from U.S. 66, and the first time that any state route followed the roads north and west of the Fair Grounds. This is 1932–two years AFTER the period the current “Historic Route 66 1926-1930″ signage covers. Clearly, these brown-and-white signs in Springfield are clearly just plain wrong.
Here is hoping that the signage will be corrected before the Scenic Byway program within Illinois proceeds.
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I think the biggest issue with the IDOT Route 66 signage dates is that the state is always very generic. If you look statewide, exact dates are rarely ever used; if a bypass replaced a two-lane in 1946, the state will use a 1926-40 for the two-lane and a 1940-77 for the bypass. South of Springfield the only splits used are 1926-30, 1930-40, and 1940-77. I agree that this is a sad mislabeling of the alignments (does it really take a lot to correct one digit?) but I don’t see them changing it anytime soon.
That all said, awesome post to have the primary documents laid out to show the sometimes confusing layout of Spr’s US 66 history. I’d like to see someone try to do that with Saint Louis and not have their head explode.
March 3rd, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Peter:
I agree that the date ranges are an issue, but I want to one more time hammer down the point that in the case of Springfield, IL, the signs pointing you around the north and west sides of the Fair Grounds are JUST PLAIN WRONG, because these streets were NEVER 66. They were NOT 66 from “1926-1930,” and they were NOT even IL 4 until 1932! This is, again, JUST PLAIN WRONG.
Now, I understand that in some places, to deal with changes of two-way streets to one-way, or to deal with streets no longer driveable, the modern Historic routing may have to go on non-66 alignments to give tourists a throughway of travel. For instance, you can no longer go south on 6th Street in downtown Springfield, so an alternate must be used. But this is NOT an issue with this “1926-1930″ alignment–it is JUST PLAIN WRONG.