Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 116,250 at the 2010 U.S. Census, which makes it the state's sixth most-populous city, the second largest outside of the Chicago metropolitan area, and the largest in central Illinois. As of 2019, the city's population was estimated to have decreased to 114,230, with just over 211,700 residents living in the Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Sangamon County and the adjacent Menard County.
The Lincoln Tomb is the final resting place of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln; his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln; and three of their four sons, Edward, William, and Thomas. It is located in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. Constructed of granite, the tomb has a large, single-story rectangular base, surmounted by an obelisk, with a semicircular receiving room entranceway, on one end, and semicircular crypt or burial-room opposite.
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum documents the life of the 16th U.S. president, Abraham Lincoln, and the course of the American Civil War. Combining traditional scholarship with 21st-century showmanship techniques, the museum ranks as one of the most visited presidential libraries. Its library, in addition to housing an extensive collection on Lincoln, also houses the collection of the Illinois State Historical Library, founded by the state in 1889. The library and museum is located in the state capital of Springfield, Illinois, and is overseen as an agency of state government. It is not affiliated with the U.S. National Archives and its system of libraries.
Lincoln Home National Historic Site preserves the Springfield, Illinois home and related historic district where Abraham Lincoln lived from 1844 to 1861, before becoming the 16th president of the United States. The presidential memorial includes the four blocks surrounding the home and a visitor center.
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. Lincoln is buried at the Old Catholic or Lincoln Cemetery near Fountain Green, Illinois.
The Vandalia State House, built in 1836, is the fourth capitol building of the U.S. state of Illinois. It is also the oldest capitol building in Illinois to survive, as the first, second, and third capitol buildings have all disappeared. The brick Federal style state house has been operated by the state of Illinois as a monument of Illinois pioneer years since 1933. It is located in Vandalia, Illinois, on the National Road, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Dana–Thomas House is a home in Prairie School style designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Built 1902–04 for patron Susan Lawrence Dana, it is located along East Lawrence Avenue in Springfield, Illinois. The home reflects the mutual affection of the patron and the architect for organic architecture, the relatively flat landscape of the U.S. state of Illinois, and the Japanese aesthetic as expressed in Japanese prints.
The Mount Pulaski Courthouse State Historic Site is a historic county courthouse located in Mount Pulaski, Illinois, United States. It was the county seat of Logan County from 1848 until 1855. It is one of only two remaining courthouses from Illinois's Eighth Circuit, the circuit on which central Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln carried out much of his practice of law. The courthouse is operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency as a state historic site. Visitors are given guided tours of the recreated county offices and courtroom.
U.S. Route 66 was a United States Numbered Highway in Illinois that connected St. Louis, Missouri, and Chicago, Illinois. The historic Route 66, the Mother Road or Main Street of America, took long distance automobile travelers from Chicago to Southern California. The highway had previously been Illinois Route 4 (IL 4) and the road has now been largely replaced with Interstate 55 (I-55). Parts of the road still carry traffic and six separate portions of the roadbed have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The First Presbyterian Church is a museum and former Presbyterian church located at 301 W. Main St. in Vandalia, Illinois. The church was built in 1868 on the site of the first Protestant church in Illinois. The first church at the site, the House of Divine Worship, was a non-denominational church built in 1823 by the Illinois State Legislature; at the time, Vandalia was the state capital, and the governor's house was located next to the church. The Presbyterian church, built after the state capital moved to Springfield, was designed in the Gothic Revival style. The red brick church has a 60-foot (18 m) tall bell tower. The church has twelve Gothic pointed arch windows; each window has an oval stained glass pattern depicting a religious scene. Vandalia's Presbyterian congregation left the building for a new church in the 1960s, and the building is now used as the Fayette County Museum.
The Warren Hickox House, also known as the Hickox/Brown house, is a 1900 Frank Lloyd Wright house in the Prairie School style in Kankakee, Illinois, United States. The house design is similar to two articles Wright published in the Ladies' Home Journal.
The B. Harley Bradley House is a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home, constructed in the Prairie School style, that was constructed in Kankakee, Illinois in 1900–1901.
The Old Custom House is a historic government building in downtown Cairo, Illinois. Built from 1869 to 1872, the building served as a customs house, post office, and courthouse. Alfred B. Mullett, the U.S. Supervising Architect at the time, designed the building in the Italianate style, a rarity among federal buildings; his design features a bracketed cornice and rounded windows. When Cairo built a new post office in 1942, the building became the town's police station. The building is one of the few surviving U.S. custom houses and one of the largest federal buildings of its era in the Mid-Mississippi Valley region.
The St. Nicholas Hotel is a historic hotel building located at 400 E. Jefferson St. in Springfield, Illinois, US.
Edwards Place is a historic house located at 700 North 4th Street in Springfield, Illinois. The house was begun in 1833 in the Greek Revival style, making it one of the oldest houses in Springfield. Additions in 1836 and 1843, and a major rebuild/expansion in 1857, created the Italianate house preserved today. The house's Italianate features include bracketed cornices and a cupola with a skylight.
The Camp Lincoln Commissary Building is a historic building on the grounds of Camp Lincoln, a National Guard camp in Springfield, Illinois. Built in 1903, the commissary is the oldest building remaining at Camp Lincoln. The camp, which opened in 1886, had previously used tents or temporary buildings for most of its activities, and the commissary soon became the camp's center of activity; it has served as a headquarters, barracks, hospital, and physical examination center at various points. The Culver Stone Company, which constructed several of Springfield's public buildings, built the commissary. The rusticated limestone building is designed to resemble a castle, as it features turrets and battlements along its roof. The building now houses a military museum.
The Hickox Apartments is an historic apartment complex located at the corner of 4th and Cook Streets in Springfield, Illinois. The complex consists of five building units built from 1920 to 1929. The buildings represent three of the five major types of Springfield apartments: two- and three-flat row apartments, detached low-rise apartments with a courtyard, and larger suburban-style apartments with a courtyard. The complex, located near the Illinois Executive Mansion in the Aristocracy Hill neighborhood, was the first apartment complex targeted at upper-middle-class families. While Springfield's apartments had typically been seen as lower-class residences, developer Harris Hickox used lavish amenities, a desirable location, and his own social status to draw wealthier residents to his new complex. Hickox also created an air of exclusivity for his apartments by employing domestic staff and lobby guards and defying the local convention of advertising new apartments. The apartments remained a respected and desirable complex through the 1960s, outlasting most of the other luxury apartments which followed its lead.
The Town House is a historic apartment building located at 718 S. 7th Street in Springfield, Illinois. The high-rise building is composed of an 11-story section and a 13-story section joined by a 14-story connector. Built in 1958, the International Style building was designed by Chicago architectural firm Shaw, Metz and Dolio. Springfield's Franklin Life Insurance Company underwrote the building; while it was originally intended to serve as employee housing, it quickly became a desirable residence for the general public as well. The building was the first high-rise luxury apartment complex in Springfield and was likely inspired by the earlier Hickox Apartments, a 1920s complex which set standards for luxury apartments in Springfield. It attempted to bring the more urban lifestyle of large Midwestern cities to comparatively smaller Springfield, and early residents boasted of their access to downtown and reduced housework. Shortly after its construction, however, the national trend of dispersed suburban homes made its way to Springfield; as a result, the Town House was the only luxury high-rise apartment ever built in the city.
The Jennings Ford Automobile Dealership is a historic automobile dealership located at 431 South 4th Street in Springfield, Illinois. Ford dealer Frank Jennings built the dealership in 1919. The automobile became widespread in Springfield in the 1910s; Jennings Ford was one of several dealerships to open on South 4th Street, which was then the city's automobile row. The three-story building integrated every major function of an auto dealership at the time; it included a sales floor, a service center, a car wash, a storage garage, and a repainting facility. While Jennings Ford closed between 1927 and 1933, the building remained a car dealership through the 1950s. It is one of the few remaining dealership buildings in downtown Springfield and is the best-preserved of the survivors. Today, the building houses an operations center for Illinois National Bank.
The St. Louis, Peoria and Northern Railroad Depot is a historic railroad station located at 1408 Broadway Street in Pekin, Illinois. The station was built in 1898 when the St. Louis, Peoria and Northern Railway built a line into Pekin; the railroad had formed only two years earlier as an amalgamation of ten other railroad companies. The new railroad provided direct passenger routes to Springfield, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri and opened up better options for shipping freight north through Peoria. The depot became part of the Chicago & Alton Railroad in 1900 when it purchased the St. L. P. & N. line from Peoria to Springfield. The station served both passenger and freight traffic until passenger service ended in the 1930s; the railroad also served as an important part of Pekin's economy, both by employing residents and stimulating local industry. The station is one of the only historic rail-related buildings remaining in Pekin.
