Our next stop was Honey Bend Resort in Litchfield, IL on 10/01/2008. We visited Springfield, IL on 10/04/2008 to see Lincoln’s Home National Historic Site, Lincoln’s Law Office State Historical Site, IL Supreme Court, Post Office, the Great Western Depot, and Lincoln’s Tomb State Historical Site. “I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington.” Abraham Lincoln left his home of seventeen years to serve as President of a nation on the verge of Civil War. The Lincoln home has been restored to its 1860 appearance, revealing Lincoln as husband, father, and politician. The picture is of Lincoln’s Home
The “restored” building’s first floor visitor center consists of an exhibit gallery and audiovisual theater, along with a room set up as an 1840s post office facility. On the second floor are rooms representing those used by the federal court, and on the third floor a “common room” and three lawyers’ offices. Two of the offices were used by Lincoln and his partners, prominent local attorneys Herndon and Stephen T. Logan (1800-1880). The picture is of the building housing Lincoln’s Law Office, IL Supreme Court, and Post Office.
The recreated offices are notable for the plainness and disorder that were remembered by Lincoln associates. The “T” configuration was Lincoln’s trade mark in that Lincoln sat at the head of the T and the parties sat facing each other. The picture is of Lincoln’s Law Office.
The picture is of IL Supreme Court.
The picture is of the 1840 Post Office.
Three months after his election in November 1860, Abraham Lincoln left Springfield for Washington, D.C. to become the 16th President of the United States. The special train that would take him there left the Great Western Depot on the rainy morning of Monday, February 11, 1861, the last day Lincoln spent in Springfield. He paid an unforgettable tribute to his friends and neighbors known today as the Farewell Address. Lincoln spoke these famous words as he boarded a special Presidential train at the Great Western Railroad station. The picture is of the Great Western Depot.
Dedicated in 1874, Lincoln’s Tomb is the final resting place of Abraham Lincoln, his wife Mary, and three of their four sons, Edward, William, and Thomas. The eldest son, Robert T. Lincoln, is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Also on the site is the public receiving vault, constructed ca. 1860, the scene of funeral services for Abraham Lincoln on May 4, 1865. In 1960 the Tomb was designated a National Historic Landmark and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. The picture is of Lincoln’s Tomb.
Also, the next day 10/05/2008, we visited Springfield, IL again to see the Old IL Capitol and the current IL Capitol. The Old State Capitol is a reconstruction of Illinois’ fifth statehouse, the first to be located in Springfield. The building served as the seat of state government and a center of Illinois political life from 1839 to 1876. During the dramatic years leading to the Civil War, the building had an important role in the political struggle between Stephen A. Douglas (1813-1861) and Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). Lincoln visited the building frequently as both a lawyer and a politician, serving in the building during his last term in the Illinois House of Representatives and delivering the famous 1858 “House Divided” speech in Representatives Hall. He used the governor’s rooms as a headquarters during the 1860 presidential campaign. The building was the scene of the assassinated President’s final laying-in-state on May 3-4, 1865. The picture is of the Old IL Capitol’s south side.
