We spent our spring break this year traveling to that iconic early April destination of….Minnesota. After spending one year in Charleston and the next in coastal Georgia, we were just tired of all that lovely beach weather and ready to break out our coats and see some snow for spring break! Or maybe it’s more that we still had a few last college visits to finish up–including Macalester College in Saint Paul, which is where Ari is going to school in just a few more weeks!
But college visits alone do not a spring break make, so, when we realized it wasn’t much of a detour to stop by Abe Lincoln’s house in Springfield, Illinois on the way up, we quickly added it to the itinerary. We are very big Abraham Lincoln fans around here (check out our visit to his boyhood home here). We were only in Springfield for one night, so we didn’t have time to do all the Abe Lincoln themed stuff they have in the area (like the presidential library and museum), but we did make it to the Lincoln Home National Historic Site and to Lincoln’s tomb a short drive away.
The home site includes 4 blocks in Springfield, with not just the home Lincoln lived in during his time here but other restored buildings as well. We started at the visitor center on the afternoon we arrived, but all the tours for the day were already full, so we watched the film (about Lincoln’s time in Springfield) and looked at the exhibits before heading to the hotel for the night.
And the gift shop:
There’s no fee to enter the site or to take the tour (although you do have to get a free timed ticket), but there is a $2 parking fee if you park on site. We got there early the next morning to tour the house, since we still had a long drive ahead of us, and we didn’t need to wait long.
The tour starts across the street from the Lincoln home, in another historic home that has some exhibits about the restoration of the property to look at while you’re waiting (and heat!). Then the ranger takes you over to the house in groups of no more than 15.
Our ranger was great and the tour was fascinating–lots of insight into Lincoln as a father and husband, in the days before the presidency.
We were warned that an alarm would sound if we stepped off the designated carpeted pathway…and that it happens on at least one tour pretty much every day. But our group made it through without setting it off!
The Lincolns, like so many 19th century families, were bold pattern mixers. Gotta admire that.
Historic kitchen pictures are my favorite!
After the tour, we checked out the rest of the neighborhood. One house has a great exhibit showing the additions that were made to the Lincoln home over the years as the family grew.
Abe did not want to pose for a picture:
It was very cold.
He got a junior ranger badge, dressed in appropriate clothing:
Two to three hours should be enough to tour the neighborhood.
Then we made the short drive to see Lincoln’s Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery. Abraham Lincoln, Mary Todd Lincoln, and all of their children except Robert Todd Lincoln are buried here (Robert is in Arlington Cemetery). The site is more extensive than I expected, and seeing it was a moving experience. There’s the tomb itself, with a replica of a Gutzon Borglum (of Mount Rushmore fame) head of Lincoln in front.
But you can also go inside to see replicas of several Lincoln statues and plaques with quotations from his speeches leading the way to the burial chamber.
Seeing it forced me to reflect on how different things might have been had Lincoln been around to see the country through the Civil War’s aftermath.
And then it was time to drive to Minnesota! We would, of course, love to go back to Springfield when we have more time, but it was definitely a worthwhile stop for the few hours we had to spend there.
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