There is no place more infused with the spirit of President Abraham Lincoln and First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln than Springfield. The future president served in the Illinois General Assembly beginning in 1834, representing Sangamon County, with Springfield as the county seat. At the time, the state capital was in Vandalia, located 75 miles southeast of Springfield. However, Rep. Lincoln and a group of fellow representatives and senators—who were all over 6 feet tall and collectively known as the “Long Nine”—maneuvered a bill through the legislature to move the capital to Springfield. The bill passed, and, thus, the future president also moved to Springfield, in 1837.
Mary Todd, who was born in Lexington, Kentucky, moved to Springfield in 1839 to live with her sister, Elizabeth Edwards, who married a son of a former governor of Illinois. She lived at what is today known as Edwards Place, a mansion that was the social center of the new capital. It was here where she met Lincoln.
“You’re not going to be able to go pretty much anywhere else in the world and have Lincoln as your backdrop,” says Terry Truman, sales manager at Visit Springfield. Illinois Meetings + Events highlights three of Springfield’s most evocative Lincoln event sites.
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
and Museum
The presidential library and museum, which are in neighboring buildings on North Sixth Street, immerse gatherings in the history of the country’s 16th president. The plaza in the museum’s rotunda, suitable for receptions up to 300 people, showcases a replica of the White House in the 1860s and a recreation of Lincoln’s boyhood log cabin. “As presidential libraries and museums go, it’s second to none,” Truman says.
Edwards Place
Today, the place where Lincoln and Todd first met is a painstakingly restored spot for elegant gatherings of up to 50 people. The showpiece of the antebellum mansion is the courting couch Lincoln and Todd sat on while the young legislator wooed the socialite. Apparently, his endearing words swayed Todd—the couple married at Edwards Place in 1842. Visit Springfield can arrange to have Lincoln reenactors attend your event at the mansion. “Lincoln’s just like a rock star,” Truman says. “Everyone wants their picture taken with him.”
Old State Capitol
The Old State Capitol is a replica of the Illinois capitol building from 1840 to 1874, where Lincoln served as a legislator until he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1846. Lincoln, when running for the Senate in 1858, gave his “House Divided” speech on the site in which he asserted, “I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” The building, with a capacity for 150 attendees, is currently undergoing renovations and is expected to reopen later this year.
