Heart of Lincoln Land

If you’re from Springfield, chances are, you’ve heard about the issue with putting high speed rail on the 10th Street corridor (as opposed to 3rd Street, where the trains now run). If you’re not from here, basically, the city wants to do away with the 3rd Street railroad corridor entirely (which runs through downtown) and place all rail traffic on the 10th Street corridor (on the eastern edge of downtown).

Missed in the 3rd Street / 10th Street high speed rail issue here in Springfield is the Lincoln Depot, at 10th and Monroe (pictured). Abraham Lincoln used this station often, most notably when he left Springfield to assume the Presidency. It’s currently like a small museum. I think it would be neat if it could become an actual passenger train station again, so that you could get on and off the train where Lincoln did. It would become the only station that Lincoln used that would also be in contemporary use as a train station.

The city plans a multimodal transportation hub (a place where intercity train and bus service would link up with local mass transit) located along the 10th Street tracks and the Lincoln Depot could become the centerpiece of the plan. Currently, the State Journal Register owns the Depot and a parking lot to the west at 9th and Monroe. They can barely keep the Depot open from April to August, and it is closed the rest of the year. If it becomes a train station, it would be open year round, and bring more attention to the site. I can envision the adjacent 9th/Monroe parking lot as a bus transfer center, and the State Journal Register parking that’s in this lot now could be consolidated into the lot at 10th and Capitol. If more room is needed than this for the multimodal transportation facility, perhaps something could be done with the currently vacant warehouses on Monroe between 10th and 11th. They could be demolished or reused/rehabilitated as necessary. As far as I know, they are not Lincoln era structures.

One interesting thing about the 3rd Street tracks is that those are the tracks that Lincoln’s funeral train arrived on when it arrived in Springfield. It’s kind of creepy how those are the tracks used right now for passenger rail. If we move passenger rail to 10th Street we have the opportunity to allow tourists and residents to walk in the same footsteps Lincoln did in his travels. Wouldn’t that be neat?

Map of the Lincoln Depot area, showing my idea:

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I have 44 of the 88 pictures so far. (Not including anything I got today or yesterday.) At least it rained last weekend, so now I can go take some of the residential shots without getting brown grass. This week’s weather so far has been cloudy, though, which has made it difficult for me to take the photos I want. I’ve also been working hard on my Etsy shop. I might not get this done until sometime in early October now. I thought I’d be finished by now. But of course, I’m still going to finish it, whatever it takes.

The 9 new pictures:

* Lincoln Home: This upper middle class house on the northeast corner of 8th and Jackson was the only home Lincoln ever owned. He lived here from 1844 to 1861 (when he left to be inaugurated as President). He probably spent the best years of his life here. The house was built in 1839 by the Rev. Charles Dresser, who also presided over the Lincolns’ wedding in 1842. When Lincoln bought the house, it was only 1 1/2 stories tall, and they added onto it over the years. The home was given to the state of Illinois in 1887 by Lincoln’s son Robert and then (along with the 4-block-square area surrounding it) to the National Park Service in 1972. One of the stipulations Robert made in the transfer of the home to the government is that it must always be free to tour, and that of course is still true today.

* Skyline from the 400 block of North 11th Street: If you recognize this photo, it’s because I used it (well, a version from a past year) to make my blog header image. I love the pretty lights and the urban feel. You can see the Hilton, the Convention Center, the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel, the Horace Mann Building, the State Capitol and the Myers Building from here.

* 600 block of East Capitol Avenue, Looking West from 7th Street: This is my favorite point along Capitol Avenue to take a streetscape shot looking directly towards the Capitol. To the right is the First Presbyterian Church, which the Lincolns attended (albeit not at this location), and visible down the street are restaurants and shops.

* 600 block of East Monroe Street, Looking West from 7th Street: This busy block has the Federal Building on the left, and a state office building on the right, and restaurants in the distance. For some reason, the traffic pattern at the 7th/Monroe intersection makes it tricky to take this streetscape shot.

* 600 block of East Adams Street, Looking West from 7th Street: Taken from the north sidewalk of the street instead of in the middle, because I like it that way. This vibrant block connects the hotels with the Adams Street Mall and the 5th and 6th Street corridors in the distance. It is lined with shops and restaurants and is one of the main corridors in downtown Springfield. The Illinois Building is visible on the right in the distance.

* West Side of the Square: Like the South Side of the Square shot, this one features the sun shining on the buildings. Which means that it was taken in the morning, and I’m not a morning person, so this one was little difficult to get. But I like the feel of this picture, somehow calming, yet urban, and vibrant. The tall building on the far right is the Myers Building, and Lincoln’s last law office was in the spot where this building now is. (The Myers Building was built in 1886.) The Chatterton Building, the 2nd building from the left, is a Lincoln-era building that housed a jewelry store where Lincoln bought Mary Todd’s wedding ring.

* Old State Capitol: This was the tallest building in Illinois when it was completed in 1839. Lincoln served his last two terms in the State Legislature here, and it was here that he gave his famous “House Divided” speech. This building remained the State Capitol until 1876 when state government outgrew the structure, thus necessitating the need for the New State Capitol.

* View from the 800 block of East Jefferson Street: While walking to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum one day, I noticed that there was a point on this block where you could see the domes of both the old and the new State Capitols, and where the domes of each of the State Capitols both have the same apparent size. This is a shot of this, viewed through the columns of the Horace Mann building on this block, and the trees on its grounds.

* State Capitol: This is the tallest building in the city, at 405 feet high. It is so large it is impossible to get the whole thing in, so I just got the dome. The building is often referred to as the “New State Capitol” to distinguish it from the old one, even though it was completed in 1876. This building is the State Capitol building today, and it is located where 1st Street and Capitol Avenue would intersect if they ran that far.

The 9 new pics:

Lincoln Home	Skyline from the 400 block of North 11th Street
600 block of East Capitol Avenue, Looking West from 7th Street	600 block of East Monroe Street, Looking West from 7th Street
600 block of East Adams Street, Looking West from 7th Street	West Side of the Square
Old State Capitol	View from the 800 block of East Jefferson Street
State Capitol

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Yay! I finally have my new Lincoln T-shirts I blogged about earlier available now. I put them up on my website, Lincoln Apparel, today, after taking pictures and writing descriptions and Web pages for them. I’m working on getting them up in my Etsy store, too. It took a lot longer than I thought, but they turned out really well and I am pleased with them. They have the design pictured to the right, which I created, screen printed onto them, and they are available in blue, red, and black. They are 100% cotton T-shirts and are union made in the USA. They are comfortable and they look great!

The design is entitled, “Back to Springfield”. I wanted to portray Lincoln as if he came back to his hometown for his 200th birthday this year. I always thought it’d be neat if Lincoln was around to witness the 200th year of his life. This inspired me to base the design on the last known photographic portrait of him taken on February 5, 1865. To represent Lincoln coming back to Springfield, I wanted him to be standing in front of a recognizable modern Springfield landmark he would be proud of, so I chose his museum. Since Lincoln is a figure to be celebrated, particularly during the year of his Bicentennial, I wanted to create a celebratory mood. The fireworks idea just kind of came to me after that and after all the other pieces fell into place.

This was my first full-color design, so I didn’t know how well it was going to turn out at the beginning. When I got done with it, I knew it was going to be awesome. Because this shirt turned out so well and has been such a great success so far, I plan on keeping the picture used in this design around for next year, but next year’s shirt will mention something other than the Bicentennial, so get yours while they last!

Enjoy the shirts!

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That’s not including anything I got yesterday or today, so I’ve successfully taken 10 new ones since the last post on Wednesday. That means that 35 of 88 are successfully completed now, and the project is proceeding along faster than it was earlier. The 10 new pictures are:

* Iles House: This house is the oldest house still standing in Springfield. It was built in 1827. It is named for Elijah Iles, one of the founders of Springfield. He was also a friend and political ally of Abraham Lincoln. The house was originally located at 6th and Cook. Over the decades it was moved around a couple locations on the south side of the city before being moved to the northeast corner of 7th and Cook in 2001. (The 6th and Cook location is now a church.) Once it was moved to 7th and Cook, it was restored as much as is possible to its original appearance and opened to the public. It is now owned by the Elijah Iles Foundation.

* Lincoln Statue at State Capitol: This dramatic statue of Lincoln on the State Capitol grounds greets you at the eastern approach to the State Capitol, at 2nd Street and Capitol Avenue. I took this picture when the sun was hiding behind some clouds, to minimize glare.

* 400 block of East Jefferson Street, Looking East from 4th Street: This shot is aimed at one of Springfield’s greatest treasures between two of the city’s biggest downtown residential complexes. To the left (north side of Jefferson) is the vine-covered Near North Village Apartments, and to the right (south side of Jefferson) is the historic St. Nicholas Hotel (now apartments). In the distance are the rotundae of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

* County Building: Even though the sign by the building says “Sangamon County Complex”, I call it the County Building, and so do many other people, probably because it’s shorter to say. The building was built in 1991, though it certainly looks more historic than that. It houses all of the county offices, including the present day Sangamon County Courthouse, and even the jail. The building takes up the whole block bounded by 9th, 10th, Adams, and Monroe. The original idea for this shot involved getting the whole 9th Street side of the building together with the sign, but realizing that that was impossible, I decided to take it with the sign close up. I liked the results.

* 500 block of South 7th Street, Looking North from Edwards Street: The first house on the left (west) side of the street is the Maisenbacher House, an upper middle class home that was built by Isaac Lindsay with a loan from Abraham Lincoln. It is currently being restored after having been moved to this block last year from the 1000 block of South 7th to save it. On the right (east) side of the street is the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. Further down the street, in the distance, behind the trees and other historic buildings, you can see downtown.

* City Hall Fountain East: Splash, splash, splash… This large fountain is located at the corner of 8th and Monroe, to the east of City Hall. It pulsates and splashes water several times each second. I tried to capture it during one of these water-splashing cycles, and I think I succeeded. Behind the fountain is the walkway that forms the 300 block of South 8th.

* 300 block of South 13th Street, Looking North from Capitol Avenue: This shot represents the Pioneer Park neighborhood, a primarily middle class, African American neighborhood just to the east of downtown. This neighborhood was developed in Lincoln’s time, though many of the houses in the neighborhood now are newer than that. Still though, the neighborhood has character and contains many old homes. It is the first neighborhood shot I have managed so far. This particular block was selected since it included a brick street. I love those.

* President Abraham Lincoln Hotel: This large hotel on the northeast corner of 7th and Adams is often considered the most expensive, luxurious hotel in the city. It was built in 1985, though its architecture, designed to emulate its historic surroundings, would lead you to believe it was built much earlier than that. It is located across Adams Street from the Hilton and is right next to the Convention Center. It contains restaurants, conference rooms, and ballrooms on the first floor. This year, with the Bicentennial, it is surrounded by Lincoln Bicentennial banners and posters in the windows. I had a tough time capturing it without all the people that are normally around the hotel (I wanted it without anybody in the way). Making things more difficult, I can only barely fit the entire height of the hotel into a landscape oriented frame. This is with my camera zoomed out all the way, standing kitty-corner from the hotel literally next to the buildings on the southwest corner of 7th and Adams. I can’t use a portrait oriented frame, since this is for a CD project and CD covers are in landscape. I tried (and failed) to shoot this one for many days until I finally got it (in just a single shot) on Saturday.

* Hoogland Center for the Arts: This large building on the 400 block of South 6th Street, on the south edge of downtown, contains theaters, art galleries, and the like, and is home to the Prairie Art Alliance. There are many events, like live theater and music, that occur here. It has a colorful marquee on the outside that lights up at night. To represent the activity that occurs here, I decided to take a picture of the Hoogland Center at night, after a show let out. The shot is panned towards downtown, so you can see what’s in the distance.

* 600 block of East Washington Street, Looking West from 7th Street: This is the only streetscape shot in the entire Lincoln Land 80s project that is taken at night. I did it this way since this block seems to have more activity at night than during the daytime, and I wanted to have at least one nighttime streetscape shot. There are people walking down the street in the shot. The Myers Building is visible in the distance, and further in the distance is a parking ramp stairwell all lit up (I always thought it looked neat that way). Since it’s impossible to set up a tripod in the middle of the street, this shot focused down the north side of Washington Street.

The 10 new pictures:

Iles House	Lincoln Statue at State Capitol
400 block of East Jefferson Street, Looking East from 4th Street	County Building
500 block of South 7th Street, Looking North from Edwards Street	City Hall Fountain East (at 8th and Monroe)
300 block of South 13th Street, Looking North from Capitol Avenue	President Abraham Lincoln Hotel
Hoogland Center for the Arts	600 block of East Washington Street, Looking West from 7th Street

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I didn’t meet my goal of getting the Lincoln Land 80s CD pictures project done by Labor Day, but I’m still going to complete the project. And I’m working on it – I’ve managed to take 7 new pictures since last Wednesday. I didn’t take any on Saturday or Sunday, I had family over those days. Of course, I would’ve got rained on had I took pictures those days.

These are the last 7 of them (since the last post on Lincoln Land 80s):

* Lincoln Statue at Lincoln Library: This is a “cubist” Lincoln statue at the entrance to Lincoln Library (the downtown one) on Capitol Avenue. Some people don’t like it, but I actually do like this statue. Somehow it seems to remind me of my 1980s youth. In any case, I think it goes along well with the building.

* 200 block of South 5th Street, Looking North from Monroe Street: This is one of the downtown blocks in the 5th Street nightlife district. A lot of the bars/nightclubs/late night restaurants in Springfield are located on this street. I took this one in the evening as people were milling about and sitting outside at some of the restaurants to capture the mood.

* Skyline from the 200 block of South 9th Street: This is taken at sunset, looking west towards the big hotels and the Illinois Building. The lights in the hotels and the colors from the sun setting create a very vibrant scene, one that I feel represents downtown Springfield. The city’s alive!

* Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices: Also called the Tinsley Building (for its owner Seth Tinsley), this building, located on the southwest corner of 6th and Adams, is the only building still standing today in which Lincoln had law offices. (Lincoln also had law offices in a building where the Myers Building is currently located and on the 100 block of North 5th Street; these locations are marked by plaques.) The building was preserved in 1986 by a local preservation group who bought it and then sold it to the state. The exact dates Lincoln had offices in the Tinsley Building (and where) are unclear, but he did have an office in the front of the building and (later) in the back. The building is basically the same today as it was then, except for the first floor, which has a small museum, and the Tinsley Dry Goods gift shop (one of my favorite Lincoln shops in Springfield). The post office is in basically the same spot as it was then. I shot this one from the north side of the building, close up. You can almost imagine Lincoln coming up to the door and entering it.

* Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum at Sunset: This shot was taken from “behind” the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, through the trees on the grounds of the nearby Horace Mann building. I’ve always thought the museum looked neat at sunset, so I wanted to do a shot of the museum at sunset for Lincoln Land 80s.

* Lincoln Statue at 6th and Adams: This is my favorite Lincoln statue in Springfield. It shows Lincoln as a normal Springfield citizen, and as a lawyer and politician, before he became well known nationally. Mary is straightening his tie, with his son Willie standing beside him. His son Robert (Tad wasn’t born yet) is running away from him (this was not captured in the picture). This statue is life size, and it certainly encourages tourists to interact with Lincoln as evidenced by its popularity as a tourist gathering spot. This makes it rather difficult to take the picture, since I don’t want people directly behind the statue (though I like capturing people walking around or sitting at sidewalk cafes on 6th Street in the distance). I used the Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices as a backdrop to represent his career at this point in his life.

* 300 block of South 8th Street, Looking North from Capitol Avenue: This section of 8th Street is actually a tree-canopied brick pedestrian walkway between City Hall and the police station. You can see these buildings along the side of the street; further down the street, you can see Saputo’s (a very good Italian restaurant), the President Abraham Lincoln Hotel, and the Convention Center.

The 7 new pictures:

Lincoln Statue at Lincoln Library	200 block of South 5th Street, Looking North from Monroe Street
Skyline from the 200 block of South 9th Street	Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum at Sunset	Lincoln Statue at 6th and Adams
300 block of South 8th Street, Looking North from Capitol Avenue

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If you’re wondering why I still don’t have my new T-shirts (pictured to the right) up on Lincoln Apparel or on my Etsy store, it’s because I’m having some frustrating delays in printing them. I wanted to have them up by early this week, but the delays will likely force me to wait until early next week to put them up on my sites. Sometimes, things just take longer than expected.

I do have some good news, though. I’m making progress on another one of my designs which should hopefully be available later this month. It features Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address. I’m also working on finding more local shops that will take some of my shirts so that I can continue to sell them locally as well.

Anyways, hopefully I’ll have the new T-shirts up sometime early next week. You can read more about my new Lincoln T-shirts in my August 20th post. You can also find news about my T-shirts by clicking “Lincoln Apparel” under “Categories”.

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I have successfully taken 6 new Lincoln Land 80s pictures since last Wednesday (not including any that I may have successfully taken today since I haven’t really looked at them yet). Some of the cloudy, cool days late last week made it difficult to take anything interesting (I don’t like completely gray sky in my photos). I didn’t even bother to go out some days last week. But, the weather in the past few days has been much better, so I managed to take 6 new ones. Here they are:

*Springfield Marine Bank: This is located on the east side of the square. The “Springfield Marine Bank” facade and columns in this structure date to the Lincoln era. Lincoln held a bank account at the Springfield Marine Bank when he lived in Springfield. In fact, the ledger where his account records were kept is on public display inside the building (now Chase Bank). In Lincoln’s day, the county courthouse was just to the north of this building (at the southeast corner of 6th and Washington). Today, the Chase Bank building occupies this spot.

*Lincoln Depot: This small brick depot at 10th and Monroe is the place in Springfield where Lincoln left to assume the Presidency. Here, he gave a very emotional farewell address to a crowd of over 1,000 citizens as he was about to leave his hometown. It is one of the few impromptu speeches that Lincoln gave; in most cases Lincoln spent weeks preparing speeches. Its unusual impromptu nature suggests the emotions Lincoln felt about his hometown and its people as he was about to leave and see Springfield for the last time. We know what he said (pretty much anyway) because newspaper reporters on the train asked him to write it down after he left. The entire speech is engraved into a stone plaque visible to the right of the depot. It is also listed on a “Looking for Lincoln” storyboard visible in front of the depot, and on a marker just to the west on the 900 block of East Monroe (not visible in the picture). There is a small museum inside the depot today, and the depot has been restored (as much as possible) to look like it did on February 11, 1861, the day Lincoln left Springfield.

I’ve always thought it would be neat if this was still a functional depot (the tracks still run right by it, and the city wants to place the new high speed rail corridor on 10th Street, something I support) but that is a topic for another post.

*Skyline from the 14th Street Bridge over Clear Lake Avenue: This is probably one of the best unobstructed views of the Springfield skyline in the city. You can see many of the buildings that characterize modern Springfield from here. You can see the County Building, the Hilton and President Abraham Lincoln Hotels, the Illinois Building, the new and old State Capitol buildings, the Horace Mann building, the St. Nicholas Hotel, the Union Station clock tower, and even the top of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. I have a tradition of using this shot as an “introduction” to Springfield on the cover of the first Lincoln Land 80s CD, since many people enter Springfield via Clear Lake and see some of this skyline on their way into the city.

*Illinois Building: This 15-story Art Deco office building, located at the northeast corner of 6th and Adams, is the third tallest building in Springfield. On the first floor, it contains street-level retail and restaurants. I believe Barack Obama’s Springfield office is in this building. At night, the top of this building lights up. I took this picture from Adams Street at around sunset, just after the light at the top of the building turned on.

*Skyline from the 700 Block of East Madison Street: Taken at night, to capture the lights on in the Hilton and President Abraham Lincoln Hotels and in the Illinois Building. You can also see some of the historic buildings on the west side of 7th Street from here.

*Hilton Hotel: Look up, up, up… This towering 30-story hotel is the second tallest building in Springfield. Only the State Capitol (the new one) is taller. I took this at night (from near 7th and Adams, where the hotel is located) to capture the pretty lights on in the hotel. If you go to the 30th floor of this hotel, you can get some truly incredible views of the city and beyond.

Pictures from the last week:

Springfield Marine Bank	Lincoln Depot
Skyline from the 14th Street Bridge over Clear Lake Avenue	Illinois Building
Skyline from the 700 Block of East Madison Street	Hilton Hotel

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