End of historic U.S. Highway 330

Note: since I don't have access to a comprehensive collection of historical road atlases, much of the info on this page is based on the research of Robert Droz; click here to view his site. Photo credits: Neil Bratney; Don Hargraves; Matt Salek; me. Map scans: Neil Bratney; Robert Droz

US 330 was an original 1926 route. For its first eight years, its east end was in downtown Chicago. The 1933 map scan below shows a US 330 marker along the bottom:

The photo below shows a modern view approaching the historic terminus:

Bratney, June 2002

That's looking east on Roosevelt Road; the first light ahead is Michigan Avenue, where US 330 ended. Today Roosevelt itself continues ahead for another couple blocks to Lake Shore - but Morton Raff points out it didn't back then because there was a railroad station in the way.

The next year, the US 330 designation was extended to the south, where it ended at US 30 in Lynwood. Look at the lower right of this 1934 map scan:

That's where US 330 ended for the remainder of its existence; looks like Torrence Avenue at the Lincoln Highway. But upon closer inspection of the roads in that area, it seems logical that US 330 would've used a small segment of Glenwood-Dyer Road between US 30 and Torrence - and Don Hargraves writes that his 1933 map does indeed indicate that. The photo below is looking north on westbound US 30/Lincoln Hwy, which goes left here:

Hargraves, June 2002

IL hwy. 83 (and former US 330) begins straight ahead on Glenwood-Dyer. That veers to the northwest and meets Torrence after about a mile. The shot below was taken from the opposite direction:

Hargraves, June 2002

IL 83 ends here, as did historic US 330. Straight ahead is eastbound US 30.

As you can see from the chart above, the other end of US 330 shifted around quite a bit during the course of its short life. Originally (and for the majority of its short existence) it was in Geneva IL. The shot below is looking east on Roosevelt Road (IL hwy. 38) at its junction with IL 31:

Hargraves, Aug. 2002

That's the perspective of a traveller on historic eastbound US 30, who would've turned right here. From 1926-1934 (and again from 1935-1937), the west beginning of US 330 was straight ahead.

The shot below is looking the opposite direction on Roosevelt, at a historic end of US 330:

Hargraves, Aug. 2002

Westbound US 30 was straight ahead; eastbound was south (left) on what is now IL 31.

In 1934, the US 330 designation was extended to the right (north) from there: connecting with US 20 in Elgin, and ending at US 14 in West Dundee (the map above depicts that terminus). The shot below is looking north on what is now IL 31 at IL 72:

Hargraves, Aug. 2002

For about one year, that used to be the end of US 330. Westbound US 14 was straight ahead; eastbound was to the right. Below we're looking the opposite direction (south on IL 31), from the perspective of historic eastbound US 14, which went left here:

Hargraves, Aug. 2002

US 330 began straight ahead.

In 1935, the west end of US 330 was truncated back to its original terminus in Geneva. Then, over the next few years, the designation was extended incrementally westward. In 1937 the west end was at Elburn:

Salek, Oct. 2007

That's looking east on IL 38; US 330 once began straight ahead. In 1939 the designation was extended westward to reconnect with US 30 at Dixon (at the time, US 30 followed what is now US 52 northwest into Dixon, and then old IL hwy. 2 west through Sterling, connecting with its current alignment near the little community of Galt). So US 330 came into Dixon on today's IL 38, ending at US 52 (old US 30):

me, Aug. 2005

Downtown is a few blocks ahead (Dixon struck me as a very appealing little city). Below is a shot from the opposite direction:

me, Aug. 2005

That would've been eastbound US 30, which continued to the right. The west beginning of US 330 was straight ahead. Lastly, here's a photo from the perspective of historic westbound US 30...

me, Aug. 2005

...which continued to the left, while US 330 began to the right.

Not long after that, US 30 was rerouted along its current path, which heads due west through Rock Falls, bypassing Dixon and Sterling. So in 1941, the US 330 designation was extended west along former US 30 through Dixon and Sterling, ending just west of Sterling near Galt. The photo below is looking east on US 30:

me, Aug. 2005

Until recently, a left turn there put you at the west beginning of IL hwy. 2. But in the early 1940's, that would've been the west beginning of US 330. However, that lasted only a couple years, when US 330 was decommissioned and re-designated as an alternate route for US 30.