What more can you ask from a city: All Things Lincoln; museums of all types; a variety of both
interesting and delicious food; Route 66 and a Frank Lloyd Wright house! All spectacular.
Springfield is the city that Lincoln called home for many
years. We were able to visit his museum,
library, home, memorial garden and grave site.
The museum was very well done. There were two very interesting movies about
Lincoln. One, called the Eyes of Lincoln gave an interesting
perspective on his eyes and his visage.
I had never noticed that his eyes did not seem to focus on the same
point. Some say that this is from a
boyhood encounter with a horse. And it
is remarkable that his face changed so much in the 5 years he was
President. The other movie was a
holographic presentation that described the process of receiving and archiving
Lincoln memorabilia. It was remarkable
to me that some of the artifacts in the museum had been received only 2 or 3
years ago.
In both the museum and the library there was a great
concentration on the Civil War. As we
were in Illinois most of the information was from the Union perspective, as it
should be. As recent transplants to
Tennessee, it always seems to me that the war looks so different from the
perspective of the south. And while much
is always made that the war was about slavery, it was really fought for the
more underlying issue of state’s rights.
How much right does the federal government have to control what a state
can do. What amazed me in all of this discussion
of state’s rights is that today, over 150 years later, we are still arguing the
same issue, whether it is about health care, immigration, or marriage. As a country, we are still trying to figure
how state and federal rights are, or should be, aligned. Most interesting to me!
The Lincoln house in Springfield is the only house that
Lincoln ever owned. He lived in it with
Mary and the 4 boys, Robert, William, Edward and Thomas. (None ever returned to the house after the
assassination. Of the children, only
Robert lived into adulthood.) The house
seemed like a lovely home, more modest than one could have expected. But, certainly luxurious to the man that was
lived his childhood in a one room log cabin.
It is now owned and maintained by the National Park Service.
The grave site was most interesting. At 7:00 PM they have a flag lower ceremony,
performed by re-enactors from an Illinois Civil War company. Bugles, drum, guns and mortar. It was very interesting. Before the ceremony, there were several
docents that re-created the Lincoln funeral.
Made you feel like it was a friend that was explaining what he had seen
during the funeral in Springfield. After
the ceremony, we were able to walk through the tomb. Abraham, Mary and 3 sons – Willie, Eddie and
Tad are buried there. Robert is buried
at Arlington national Cemetery.
We had planned to walk at least some of the 6 miles of
trails in the Garden that now grows plants that were indigenous to the areas
that Lincoln lived – Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. But, the rain had other ideas. We did drive to it and walk a short distance
of the path. It seems to be an well maintained area with lots of green space.
Then there was Route 66.
We have visited/driven parts of Route 66 in Twin Arrows and Two Gun and
Winslow AZ, Albuquerque, NM. I had not realized that Route 66 went through
Springfield. Many motels, diners and gas
stations still remain. Some open for
business and some in not-so-good shape. But,
it is always interesting to see the signs, the business and all the
memorabilia.
The food was most interesting. We needed to fit it in to all the other
tourist things we were doing. We started
with lunch at the Feed Store. It is
right in the midst of historic downtown Springfield. Sounds like it might be a bit of a stretch to
eat here. They had the best soup and
sandwiches. They are only opened for
lunch in a restored historic building.
Great atmosphere, wonderful service and sandwiches to die for! Then there was the required stop at the Cozy
Diner, the Route 66 home of the original ‘Hot dog on a stick”, or corn
dog. Interesting diner that looked like
it had not changed since the heyday of Route 66. But good hot dogs. Jungle Jim’s Café was our lunch stop on
another day. Great service,
well-maintained/restored diner of the Route 66 era and the food was great,
too. All in all we had wonderful
experiences eating. Now we must stop
eating for at least 2 weeks. Unfortunately
(!!) that will not happen!
And the last prize in Springfield was the Dana Thomas
house. It is a home, one of Frank Lloyd Wrights
first, that was “remodeled” in 1904. The
quotes are required because there is little more than a single room remaining
from the original home. But, it was not
actually new construction. It was a
lovely home, with all the typical Wright architectural elements or light,
merging of indoor and outdoor space, many levels (16 in all), open space and
built-in clutter-free furnishings. The
major artistic designs were the sumac and the butterfly. And this home has more glass still displayed than
most other Wright prairie homes. It was quite an impressive home, with many of
its original furnishings. It has been
restored (by the state of Illinois) to its 1910 appearance. Well worth the visit.
Springfield, IL was a most interesting, enjoyable stop. And, BTW, the campground we stayed at is on
Route 66! Another added bonus!
