A Step Into The Past, President Style.

It is not everyday that you can literally walk off the street and into a piece of American history. Springfield Illinois has the place where your feet will take you from asphalt to wooden sidewalks, gravel streets without cars, and ancient towering trees.

This place is the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. Here is where Abraham Lincoln spent a better quarter of a decade of his life, where he was a sought after lawyer, where he started his family, and where he received the Republican Presidential Nomination. The couple square blocks of Lincoln’s neighbor is preserved in a little time loop. The houses are all beautiful Victorian style houses and cottages that call the imagination back to the times without electric lights and automobiles.

Lincoln’s house was frozen in time, and looked as it did the day Lincoln left to take office. What had started as a small cottage grew into a beautiful town house. Evidence of the Lincoln family sat where they had been placed by Mrs. Lincoln. Gorgeous horse hair furniture, gilt gold mirrors, extravagant wallpaper and carpets, feather beds, and the simple touches that a family would have.

I half expected to see Abe Lincoln sitting in the parlor penning his speeches, his young songs on the front porch playing chess, and his wife sewing up a new shirt for Abe. The house gave a feel of the 1800’s, no electricity, a small kitchen, and an outhouse in the back yard.

I was struck by how passionate the park rangers were during the tour my class and I took. Our tour guide was proud of the historic site, proud to be working their, and proud to show others the history. It was energizing to hear someone speak with passion about the historic site, it made me want to know all that there was about the little piece of 1800’s Springfield frozen in the middle of the modern city.

The historic site for history junkies, like myself, is full of tantalizing information and artifacts. 8/10 would visit again.