… was authorized on this date in 1971. It is the only National Park Service unit in Illinois.
“My friends — No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything.” An emotional Abraham Lincoln opened his farewell remarks to the citizens of Springfield, Illinois with these words on February 11, 1861. Lincoln was leaving his friends and neighbors of twenty-four years, and the home that he and his family had lived in for seventeen years, to serve as president of a nation on the verge of Civil War.
The Lincoln home, the centerpiece of the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, has been restored to its 1860s appearance, revealing Lincoln as husband, father, politician, and President-elect. It stands in the midst of a four block historic neighborhood which the National Park Service is restoring so that the neighborhood, like the house, will appear much as Lincoln would have remembered it.
Click image to see larger version. NewMexiKen photo, June 2006. Shades pulled to protect furnishings from sunlight.
I haven’t lived there for almost 20 years, but Springfield is still my hometown. When Lincoln’s Home NHS was dedicated, school closed so we could all go to the big event. I got to see your pal, President Jerry Ford there. My favorite bit of Lincoln stuff is an old t-shirt with a quote dated 2/11/1861, the date of his Farewell to Springfield speech. There is the mandatory picture of Lincoln; beneath it, in smallish print: “They’d have to shoot me to get me back to Springfield.”
It’s a great place to see, so much better than when it was run by competing souvenir shops.