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 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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