SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) - The Abraham Lincoln Association announced Friday they are planning to reconstruct the original cottage where Abraham Lincoln and his family lived. The cottage will be built on land on Eighth Street between Edwards and Cook streets in Springfield.
Photo of what the Lincoln Cottage will look like (Courtesy: Abraham Lincoln Association)
The association has launched a $400,000 campaign to acquire the vacant land where they will design and construct an accurate replica of the original one-and-a-half-story, six-room cottage. The project's $400,000 budget includes $250,000 for construction and $70,000 for land acquisition, with the remainder of the funds to be used for site cleanup, design, landscaping and signs.
The Association has signed an option-to-buy agreement for a parcel of land a short walk from the National Park Service-administered Lincoln Home. Association officials hope the National Park Service will maintain and manage the reconstructed Lincoln Cottage. A scale model of the Lincoln Cottage has for several years been on display in the Dean House.
“Visitors can currently observe the domestic environment of Lincoln’s family during its final five years at Eighth and Jackson, but they cannot as easily appreciate what life was like for that family during the preceding twelve years, when their quarters were far more cramped,” said Lincoln scholar and Abraham Lincoln Association President Michael Burlingame.
An exact time the cottage will be constructed has not been planned. The Association says it depends on the success of its fundraising efforts.
“People entering the proposed replica of the Cottage will gain a fuller, deeper appreciation of what the Lincolns’ life was like for three-fourths of the time that they lived in the home, a pressure-cooker type atmosphere created by its tight quarters which doubtless exacerbated family tensions," said Michael Burlingame.
