Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park | |
Former U.S. National Historic Site | |
![]() The Memorial Building was dedicated in 1911 | |
Location | LaRue County, Kentucky, U.S. |
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Coordinates | 37°31′53″N85°44′10″W / 37.53139°N 85.73611°W |
Area | 344.50 acres (139.41 ha) [1] |
Visitation | 252,495 (2016) [2] |
Website | Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park |
NRHP reference No. | 66000066 |
Significant dates | |
Established | July 17, 1916 |
Designated NHS | September 8, 1959 |
Designated NHP | October 15, 1966 |
Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park is a designated U.S. historic park preserving two separate farm sites in LaRue County, Kentucky, where Abraham Lincoln was born and lived early in his childhood. He was born at the Sinking Spring site south of Hodgenville and remained there until the family moved to the Knob Creek Farm northeast of Hodgenville when he was two years old, living there until he was seven years of age. The park's visitor center is located at the Sinking Spring site.
In the late fall of 1808, Thomas and Nancy Lincoln settled on Sinking Spring Farm. Two months later on February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born there in a one-room log cabin. Today this site bears the address of 2995 Lincoln Farm Road, Hodgenville, Kentucky. A cabin, symbolic of the one in which Lincoln was born, is preserved within a 1911 neoclassical memorial building at the site.
On site of the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park is a Visitor Center and the First Lincoln Memorial.
Adjacent to the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park is a property that is the privately owned Nancy Lincoln Inn.
A Beaux-Arts neo-classical Memorial Building was designed by John Russell Pope for the birthplace site. On February 12, 1909, the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth, the cornerstone was laid by President Theodore Roosevelt and the building was dedicated on November 9, 1911, by President William Howard Taft. [3] Almost a hundred years after Thomas Lincoln moved from Sinking Spring Farm, a similar log cabin was placed inside the Memorial Building. The Memorial Building features 16 windows, 16 rosettes on the ceiling, and 16 fence poles, representing Lincoln being the 16th president. The 56 steps leading up to the building entrance represent his age at his death. [4]
The original log cabin that Lincoln was reputed to have been born in was dismantled sometime before 1865. Local tradition held that some of the logs from the cabin were used in construction of a nearby house. New York businessman Alfred W. Dennett purchased the Lincoln farm in November 1894 and used the logs from this house to construct a cabin similar in appearance to the original cabin where Lincoln was born. Soon the cabin was dismantled and re-erected for exhibition in many cities. Eventually the logs for this cabin, along with logs incorrectly reputed to have belonged to Jefferson Davis's birthplace and possibly a third cabin, were purchased by the Lincoln Farm Association (LFA), which believed they had acquired only Lincoln logs. When workers tried to reconstruct the cabin, they discovered the problem. The LFA bought a one-room cabin similar to the one reconstructed by Dennett. When the last rebuilt cabin was placed in the Memorial Building, its size made visitor circulation difficult. The LFA reduced the cabin's size from 16-by-18 feet to 12-by-17 feet.
The Symbolic Birth Cabin represents the one Abraham Lincoln was born in on February 12, 1809. While the original was likely lost to time, the logs in this cabins date to mostly the 1840s and depicts a typical cabin of the mid 19th century, and had been lived in.
Lincoln Boyhood Home | |
The "Gollaher Cabin" sits on the Knob Creek site where Lincoln lived. | |
Nearest city | Athertonville, Kentucky |
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Coordinates | 37°36′41″N85°38′17″W / 37.61139°N 85.63806°W |
Built | 1931 |
Architect | Thompson, Robert |
Architectural style | Single pen log cabin |
NRHP reference No. | 88002531 [5] |
Added to NRHP | November 16, 1988 |
Lincoln lived at Sinking Spring until he was two years old, before moving with his family to another farm a few miles to the northeast along Knob Creek, near present-day U.S. Highway 31E, where he lived until the age of seven in 1816.
The total acreage of Knob Creek Farm is 228 acres (92 ha), of which the Lincolns lived on 30 acres (12 ha). Lincoln's father, Thomas Lincoln, leased the land by the Old Cumberland Trail (now U.S. 31E) in hopes of regaining the Sinking Spring Farm, where Lincoln was born. [6] At the Knob Creek home, Lincoln's brother, Thomas, was born and died. Lincoln himself almost died at the farm as well, nearly drowning in the nearby creek until neighbor and friend Austin Gollaher extended a branch to rescue him from the swollen waters. [7] In December 1816, when Lincoln was almost eight years old, he moved with his family to a homestead in Indiana, which is now preserved as the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial.
The cabin the Lincolns lived in was later moved and re-purposed by Austin Gollaher. Gollaher took down the old home and used the logs to build a horse stable about a mile down the road. Years later, the stable was washed away by a flood. [8] [9]
The two historical buildings at the location are the Lincoln Tavern and the Gollaher Cabin. [10] The Tavern was built in 1933 at the cost of $4,200; the 1.5 floor structure was constructed of logs and concrete in an asymmetrical plan. The Gollaher Cabin was likely built around the year 1800, and moved to its present location to reflect what the Lincoln cabin would look like. It is thought to be the cabin Austin Gollaher's family lived in during Lincoln's stay at Knob Creek Farm. [11] The tavern was built to cash in on the booming tourist trade that came to LaRue County to see sites connected with Lincoln, much as the Nancy Lincoln Inn was. It was originally a dance hall that served liquor, but when LaRue County became "dry" in 1942, it was converted to a museum and gift shop, as it remained until it was closed in 1998. During the 1980s, when it was privately owned 20,000 annually visited the complex. [12]
The farm was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 16, 1988, due to its role in tourism in LaRue County, Kentucky, and for its connections with Abraham Lincoln. [13] More detail on the history and specifics of the site are covered in a 2006 NPS report. [14]
The Knob Creek site was added to the National park in November 2001 after the Larue County Fiscal Court purchased it from private owners through the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves' Kentucky Heritage Land Conservation Fund.
The Memorial building was constructed by the Lincoln Farm Association on the Sinking Spring site between 1909 and 1911. In 1916, they donated the Memorial and property to the Federal government, which established the Abraham Lincoln National Park on July 17, 1916. The War Department administered the site until August 10, 1933, when it was transferred to the National Park Service. It was designated as the Abraham Lincoln National Historical Park on August 11, 1939. It was renamed and redesignated Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site on September 8, 1959. As with all historic sites administered by the National Park Service, the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, effective on October 15, 1966. The historic site's definition was expanded to include the Knob Creek site on November 6, 1998. [3] On March 30, 2009, the two sites were again designated a National Historical Park.
The Sinking Spring site, which contains the 1911 memorial, has a visitor center museum, theater and bookstore. The Knob Creek site has interpretive staff during certain days in summer months. Both sites have hiking and picnic areas. [15]
Hodgenville is a home rule-class city in LaRue County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of its county. Hodgenville sits along the North Fork of the Nolin River. The population was 3,206 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Elizabethtown metropolitan area.
Lincoln City is an unincorporated community in Carter Township, Spencer County in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Indiana. It lies five minutes south of Interstate 64, northeast of Evansville, and approximately twenty miles north of the Ohio River.
Thomas Lincoln Sr. was an American farmer, carpenter, and father of the 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Unlike some of his ancestors, Thomas could not write. He struggled to make a successful living for his family and faced difficult challenges in Kentucky real estate boundary and title disputes, the early death of his first wife, and the integration of his second wife's family into his own family, before making his final home in Illinois.
Nancy Hanks Lincoln was the mother of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Her marriage to Thomas Lincoln also produced a daughter, Sarah, and a son, Thomas Jr. When Nancy and Thomas had been married for just over 10 years, the family moved from Kentucky to western Perry County, Indiana, in 1816. When Spencer County was formed in 1818, the Lincoln Homestead lay within its current boundaries. Nancy Lincoln died from milk sickness or consumption in 1818 at the Little Pigeon Creek Community in Spencer County when Abraham was nine years old.
Mordecai Lincoln was an uncle of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. He was the eldest son of Captain Abraham Lincoln, a brother of Thomas Lincoln and Mary Lincoln Crume, and the husband of Mary Mudd. He is buried at the Old Catholic or Lincoln Cemetery near Fountain Green, Illinois.
Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial is a United States presidential memorial and a National Historic Landmark District in Lincoln City, Indiana. It preserves the farm site where Abraham Lincoln lived with his family from 1816 to 1830. During that time, he grew from a 7-year-old boy to a 21-year-old man. His mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, and at least 27 other settlers were buried here in the Pioneer Cemetery. His sister Sarah Lincoln Grigsby was buried in the nearby Little Pigeon Baptist Church cemetery, across the street at Lincoln State Park.
The Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site is an 86-acre (0.3 km2) history park located eight miles (13 km) south of Charleston, Illinois, U.S., near the town of Lerna. The centerpiece is a replica of the log cabin built and occupied by Thomas Lincoln, father of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln never lived here and only occasionally visited, but he provided financial help to the household and, after Thomas died in 1851, Abraham owned and maintained the farm for his stepmother, Sarah Bush Lincoln. The farmstead is operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
Sarah Bush Lincoln was the second wife of Thomas Lincoln and stepmother of Abraham Lincoln. She was born in Kentucky to Christopher and Hannah Bush. She married her first husband, Daniel Johnston, in 1806, and they had three children. Daniel Johnston died in 1816, and in 1819, she married widower Thomas Lincoln, joining his family with her three children.
The Nancy Lincoln Inn is a historic building located adjacent to the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park in LaRue County, Kentucky, just south of Hodgenville, Kentucky. Despite being on National Park Service property, it is privately owned.
The Abraham Lincoln Statue is a historic statue in the Hodgenville Commercial Historic District's public square in Hodgenville, Kentucky. Adolph Alexander Weinman sculpted the statue, as he also did the Lincoln statue at the capitol rotunda at Frankfort, Kentucky. The Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park is nearby.
The Mordecai Lincoln House is a historic house located in Washington County, Kentucky, 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Springfield, Kentucky. It was the home of Mordecai Lincoln, brother of Thomas Lincoln, the father of the 16th President of the United States Abraham Lincoln. It is the only house owned by a member of Abraham Lincoln's family that still stands in Kentucky. It is across KY 528 from Lincoln Homestead State Park.
Lincoln House may refer to:
Jesse LaFollette was the grandfather of Robert Marion La Follette, Sr., William La Follette, and Harvey Marion LaFollette. His family lived next to the Knob Creek Farm, Kentucky owned by Thomas Lincoln during Abraham Lincoln's boyhood years. LaFollette is shown in one of the limestone panels at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, Indiana.
The Civil War Trust's Civil War Discovery Trail is a heritage tourism program that links more than 600 U.S. Civil War sites in more than 30 states. The program is one of the White House Millennium Council's sixteen flagship National Millennium Trails. Sites on the trail include battlefields, museums, historic sites, forts and cemeteries.
The LaRue family was a family of American pioneers, primarily in Virginia and Kentucky, in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Little Pigeon Creek Community, also known as Little Pigeon Creek Settlement and Little Pigeon River settlement, was a settlement in present Carter and Clay Townships in Spencer County, Indiana along Little Pigeon Creek. The community, near present-day Lincoln City, Indiana, was established on frontier land by 1816. There were enough settlers in the Indiana wilderness to enable Indiana to become a state in December, 1816.
Colonel William Jones House, also known as William Jones State Historic Site, is a historic house in Gentryville and the Lincoln State Park in Jackson Township, Spencer County, Indiana. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 12, 1975. William Jones (1803–1864) was a farmer, merchant, soldier, and politician.
Lincoln Pioneer Village is a memorial along the Ohio River in Rockport, Spencer County, Indiana to President Abraham Lincoln who lived in the county during his boyhood years. It was built in 1934 and 1935 in the city park by the Works Progress Administration. George Honig, an artist and sculptor from Spencer County, designed the memorial. He also oversaw the building of the pioneer village replica, which was sponsored by the Spencer County Historical Society and the Rockport City Council. It was listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places on April 20, 1998.