The postcard shows the South Side Frisco Shops. In 1880 the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis Railroad Company built a repair facility on Mill Street near what was at that time the western limit of Springfield, west of the Grant Avenue viaduct, directly south of Jordan Creek. In 1901 the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad (Frisco) acquired by lease the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Memphis Railroad, whose shops became the Frisco South Side Shops. They purchased the railroad in 1928. This would date the postcard to shortly after 1901.

The postcard shows two impressive buildings with only distant railroad locomotive cars depicted in the background. Note the misspelling of the word "Springfield".

According to the 1885 Sanborn Map of Springfield, the South Side Shops contained a forge shop, machine shop, warehouses, car shop, wielding house, bolt house and brass house. By 1956 there were only six buildings still standing.

The area of the South Side Shops is currently (2002) being considered as an extension of the Jordan Valley Park. This will depend on the cost of cleaning up the area, which is considered a brownfield.