"Lincoln Home National Historic Site" Springfield Travelogue by Paulie_D

Abraham Lincoln purchased his first and only house. In May of 1844, Abraham, Mary, and their first son, Robert, moved into a one-and-a-half-story cottage - a house which they eventually expanded into two stories, and a home where they raised their family for seventeen years.

The house today reflects the Lincoln Home of 1860. By that date, the Lincoln family numbered five - Abraham, Mary, Willie, and Tad, although for much of that year, Robert was away at preparatory school.

This and other information obtained from the National Park Service literature and website

Springfield homes were not numbered until 1873, and so the Lincolns, like many of their Springfield neighbors, used a front door nameplate to identify their home to visitors.

The formal parlor, where the Lincolns entertained important guests, was considered the nicest room in the house. It was also here, on May 19, 1860, that men from the Republican National Convention officially asked Lincoln to run for the Presidency. Several days later, Lincoln accepted the nomination.

The sitting room is similar to a modern family room, a place where the family held informal receptions and where they relaxed.

This is also where the family dog - Fido - and the Lincolns' numerous cats spent time.

When Lincoln spent time here though, he was more likely to spend it on the floor, since most of the furniture was not comfortable for his six-foot-four-inch frame.

On the desk is one of the boys' toys: a stereoscope. Robert, Willie, and Tad would open the top to allow light into the box, would insert into the stereoscope a card which had two nearly identical photographs side-by-side, and then would peer through the two holes in front. This arrangement would make the images in the photographs appear three dimensional.

This was Lincoln's bedroom from 1855 to 1861.

When the Lincolns moved their sleeping quarters from the first floor to the second, they moved into separate bedrooms.

Following the custom of the day, if the family's finances allowed, the husband and wife were given their own bedrooms.

For a time, Mary shared her room with her two youngest children, Willie and Tad.

When Mary and Abraham shared a bedroom, they would have also shared it with Bobbie and Eddie as well. This was a common sleeping arrangement during this time.

When the children were considered old enough, they received their own room.

The kitchen was the center of activity in the home.

The Lincolns hosted many parties occasionally with 150 to 200 guests.

The kitchen was often crowded with Mary, her hired girl, and the cook.

Lincoln would help by milking the cow and fetching the wood, two duties he had performed since childhood.

On May 4th, 1865, Lincoln's funeral procession passed in front of the Lincoln home on it's way to Oak Ridge Cemetery where his body would be placed in a grand tomb (Click Here).

Eventually, the house passed to Robert, Lincoln's only surviving son and in 1867 he donated it to the people of Illinois with the stipulation that the public would always have free access to it.

The house was donated to the United States of America in 1972.