Springfield is the capital of the state of Illinois. Just east of the State Capitol building is a preserved neighborhood which is now a National Historic Site. Walking these streets makes you feel like you’re back in the 1860s.

I was here to see and sketch the house on the corner of Eighth Street and Jackson Street. In fact, I was looking forward to sketching this house more than any other structure on my midwestern jaunt.

I headed to the intersection early in the morning to avoid the crowds surrounding the house or the tourists standing behind me wondering or asking what I was doing. The only other people out and about were maintenance workers, gardeners, and park rangers arriving to work.

I sat on the curb, across the intersection from the house, opened my sketchbook, and started to draw. Before me was the only house that Abraham Lincoln ever owned.

The Lincolns lived in Springfield for seventeen years (1844-1861). They raised their four boys here, three of which were born in the house. Lincoln practiced law here, he walked to his law office from this house. When Lincoln bought the small cottage in 1844 in was a small single story house. The cottage expanded with his growing family to be the two story house that exists today.

Lincoln left the house for the last time in February 1861. A few blocks to the northeast, Lincoln boarded a train at the Great Western Station (more about this in another post) to Washington DC as President-elect on his way to become the 16th president.

After my sketch (featured sketch) I joined the first tour of the day (you can only visit with a National Park guide).

The inside of the house was even more impressive than the outside for within these walls is where the Lincoln family lived. Seeing where they ate, lived, wrote, read, played, and slept really humanizes the Lincolns, a contrast to the stern and stale history books of old. About 40% of the furniture and furnishings are original to the Lincolns.