Spaulding, IL

Spaulding is a Sangamon County village just off Illinois 54 east of Springfield, with its story rooted in trees, trains, and the small roads around Lake Springfield. The village took its name from the Spaulding family nursery, whose plants and trees were shipped around the country. That volume helped bring a railroad station, and the Illinois Central line gave the settlement a working connection beyond the surrounding farms. Gathards Corner, once a general store, cafe, gas station, and garage, was another local stop on the old road map.

The old grade school stood on Raylots Street until fire led to a replacement; students now attend Riverton schools. A one-lane bridge over the Illinois Central has become a pedestrian crossing after fires and its closure to cars, and the village park includes a veterans memorial at a former mine site. New subdivisions and annexations changed Spaulding’s size in the 2000s, but the place still reads as a small Springfield-area village, with nursery history, rail remnants, and everyday school connections holding the map together.