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Category Archives: Historic Sites
Springfield cemeteries, past and present
This entry has been updated. See below. Springfield’s Old City Cemetery had been closed to new burials for more than 30 years when an Illinois State Journal writer visited in February 1890. It wasn’t a pleasant sight. A dreary and … Continue reading
Posted in Early residents, Historic Sites
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U.S. Grant speech at Lincoln Tomb dedication, 1874
President Ulysses Grant was not the main speaker when Abraham Lincoln’s tomb was dedicated on Oct. 15, 1874. Grant was asked to deliver the official dedication address, but declined. He did, however, did give a short speech at the ceremony, … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Historic Sites, Lincoln Tomb, Museums, Presidents, Uncategorized
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The Hammerslough/Rosenwald family, clothiers
The Capitol Clothing House opened in Springfield in 1856 with the slogan “Low Prices and Good Goods.” Aside from providing inexpensive, ready-to-wear clothes to pre-Civil War Springfield, the Capitol Clothing House is the reason Springfield can boast that it was … Continue reading
Illinois State Fair crisis, 1922-23
The big question after the 1922 Illinois State Fair was whether there would be another one in 1923. On one level, the problem involved ownership of the fairgrounds. When Sangamon County turned the former site of the county fair over … Continue reading
Lincoln Tomb streetcar line (1880)
The Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site is a mile-and-a-half from downtown Springfield. That distance isn’t a problem in the 21st century, but it was a considerable obstacle when the tomb was new 150 years earlier. Distance was a big reason … Continue reading
Lincoln Tomb statuary (added 1931)
The statuettes inside the Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site were supposed to be urns. And the Gutzon Borglum bust just outside the tomb – the one people rub the nose of – was supposed to be indoors. The interior of … Continue reading
Strawbridge-Shepherd House
Thomas Strawbridge Jr. (1798-1880) was born in County Donegal, Ireland, one of seven children of Thomas and Jane Mitchell Strawbridge. Thomas’ mother died in May 1809, when Thomas was only 11 years old. The year following her death, the Strawbridge … Continue reading
Lincoln circuit marker, Sangamon-Christian county line
Down a tiny back road southeast of Breckenridge, out of view but within earshot of Illinois 29, stands a century-old monument to the legal career of Abraham Lincoln. Nearly forgotten today, it is one of three dozen markers the Daughters … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture, Historic Sites, Lincoln, Abraham, Markers
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U.S. Grant marches to Island Grove, 1861
In 1927, Benjamin Warfield Brown, the son of agricultural pioneer James N. Brown, published a short memory of then-Col. U.S. Grant’s 1861 visit to the Brown family farm in western Sangamon County. The visit turned out to be, literally, part … Continue reading
Alfred Piquenard, Statehouse architect
The question of who deserves credit for designing the Illinois Statehouse has a complicated answer. When commissioners awarded the first design contract, newspaper stories called it “the plan of J.C. Cochrane,” referring to Chicago architect John C. Cochrane. An early … Continue reading