8/28 - Springfield: Illinois State Capitol and Lincoln Home

No blog for the past two days due to having no pictures to post and no interesting information. Saturday was our last day in Madison and we didn't leave the campground. By the time we'd restrung a blind that broke and took forever to get back up and watered the plants (yes, we're traveling with ten orchids and a peace lily), we were halfway through the afternoon so didn't have enough time left to do anything. It was threatening rain anyway so driving 40 miles to a state park where hiking would have been required wasn't really an inviting prospect.


Yesterday (Sunday) we drove 280 miles south to Springfield, the capital of Illinois. The drive wasn't much better than the previous two in Wisconsin....awfully rough interstates but at least there were rest areas which were much appreciated. Lovie and the cats had their insides rattled for yet another day.


We had a lot to see today so got an earlier start than usual. Our first stop was the Illinois State Capitol which is called the Statehouse. It was started in 1868 and finally finished in 1888 after numerous problems including corruption (it is Illinois after all). It is the sixth Statehouse, the first five spread over three cities and taking up the years of 1818 through 1868. 


A bit of trivia....
The first capitol was in Kaskaskia, the site of which has now disappeared into the Mississippi. The second through fourth were in Vandalia....the first burned and the second was torn down by residents who built a nicer replacement in an unsuccessful effort to persuade legislators to choose Vandalia as the permanent capital. The fifth, in the new capital of Springfield, needed to be replaced with a much bigger building only 30 years after it was started.


The Statehouse combines three architectural styles....Renaissance Revival, Greek Revival and Second Empire. Maybe they couldn't make up their minds. Or they had too many cooks stirring the pot.

Rear....south and west wings

The Mansard roofs on the long north and south wings were a French touch by one of the designers who was born in France. The statue at lower right is hard to make out but it's to honor firefighters. The building looks top-heavy because the dome is so high in comparison to the length of the wings.

Front of the Capitol with Lincoln's statue

The building is impressive with a very high silver dome (361').....74' higher than the U.S. Capitol. The exterior is not as beautiful as the Minnesota and Wisconsin capitols, partly because the limestone has yellowed (or maybe started out that way) which gives it a slightly dirty tinge. The magnificence of the building is in its interior ceilings. 

Before the dome interior was renovated in 1986 it was black with grime from years of gaslight use. No one alive at the time had ever seen the beautiful stained glass and bronze-painted plaster frieze around the bottom (which looks gray in the picture).

Ceiling in the House Chamber with chandeliers weighing 700 lbs each

Ceiling in the Senate Chamber

Ceiling in Senate conference room, formerly the Supreme Court room

Grand Staircase Painting

Above is the third floor of the rotunda with the 40'x20' painting of George Rogers Clark negotiating with Native Americans in 1778. It has been criticized because the Indian culture it portrayed was never found in Illinois. It was painted by a German immigrant who probably didn't have much knowledge of the history of Illinois.

Second and third floors of the rotunda

One big difference between the Illinois Statehouse and the Minnesota and Wisconsin State Capitols was security.  Minnesota and Wisconsin are both very open, but Illinois has metal detectors which they're very serious about and armed guards walking around everywhere. I had to keep going through the metal detector and finally had to be wanded because something (never identified) kept setting it off. 

The visitor center across the street had an interesting elk statue made from pieces of chrome bumpers. It's mouth had a bird's nest in it.

Good use for busted bumpers

Our second stop was the Lincoln Home which is managed by the National Park Service. They've restored a four-block area to make it much like it was during Lincoln's years there. 

Lincoln Family Home

The house started out with just the first floor of the front section. As the family prospered and grew, the house was expanded. A second floor was added as well as the two story rear section.  The Lincolns knew their rambunctious boys would climb out the bedroom window onto the porch roof so installed a railing to prevent them from falling off.

Informal family living room

The house had two living areas. Children were not allowed in the front parlor which was more formally furnished and was where Mr. Lincoln met with associates and Mrs. Lincoln entertained her friends. The back living room was more of a family room with furniture appropriate for children. Mr. Lincoln sat or lay down on the floor in this room because the chairs were too small for his 6'4" frame. 

Mrs. Lincoln's prized kitchen stove

Mrs. Lincoln was born into a wealthy family so had to learn to do household chores when she married. The family had a servant to help with the house and children but Mrs. Lincoln loved cooking so did that all herself. She loved this stove so much she wanted to take it to Washington, but President Lincoln managed to convince her there would be a stove in the White House.


Our final stop was the Lincoln Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery. The citizens of Springfield wanted it to be in the middle of the city where the Statehouse now stands, but Mrs. Lincoln insisted on the cemetery which she and the President had admired when they attended its dedication a few years before. 

Tomb with the gravesites of President and Mrs. Lincoln and three of their four sons 

Inside the tomb the grave is ten feet below and just behind this monument

Miniature of the Lincoln Memorial statue in Washington, DC

We got back to the campground by 5:00 after a very full day. Tomorrow will be our last day of sightseeing for this trip....the Lincoln Museum and Presidential Library.