Illinois - Lincoln Home National Historical Site
Back in fall of 2016, I was working for a firm that worked on projects all over the United States. Subsequently, I often did short road trips in the Midwest to look at or find out about potential projects. On this particular day, I was headed to St. Louis, and rather than speed past Springfield Illinois on I 55, like I had the last several times, I decided to stop in to visit the Lincoln Home National Historical Site.
The site is located on about four square blocks near the middle of downtown Springfield. It consists of a Visitor Center and several preserved homes from the time that Abraham Lincoln lived there.
I started at the Visitor Center, where they had two theaters, each with a different movie. I try to always start with watching a movie at the Visitor Center – they are always done exceptionally well! Then, if that’s the only thing I can do at a site, due to weather, or time, or international pandemic, at least I have learned something! One of the two movies here was on Lincoln's life in Springfield, and the other was about the site specifically. The story of Lincoln was great and gave me information that I never learned in school.
Lincoln followed an interesting path to politics. He was first and foremost a lawyer and had one 4-year stint in office in Washington as a State Legislator, but then decided not to do politics anymore. He went back to Illinois and continued his merry way as a lawyer - until he was so upset about the slavery issues, that he got back into politics.
Following the movie, I toured the rest of the grounds informally. The grounds were all open, and with so many different homes preserved, I wandered in and out and around several of them. The site was interesting, and at each preserved home, there was a plaque with information about who lived there, and what it was used for. Of course, the highlight is the actual home of Lincoln, which is preserved to look as it did in the 1860s. When the Lincolns moved to the White House, they rented their home out for a while, but after Lincoln's death, his son donated the home to a historical organization, and it was open for tours.
This was a pleasant stop on the trip south through Illinois. Being that it was a nice day helped a LOT since most of the site is outdoors, but it is worth the detour!
