President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National Monument
President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National Monument | |
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Armed Forces Retirement Home-Washington, President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home. Previously National Trust for Historic Preservation | |
Website | President Lincoln's Cottage |
President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National Monument, sometimes shortened to President Lincoln's Cottage, is a
President
History
The historic Cottage, built in the
Poet Walt Whitman, who was living on Vermont Avenue near the White House in 1863, often saw the president riding to or from Soldiers' Home. He wrote in The New York Times, "Mr. LINCOLN generally rides a good-sized easy-going gray horse, is dressed in plain black, somewhat rusty and dusty; wears a black stiff hat, and looks about as ordinary in attire, &c., as the commonest man...I saw very plainly the President's dark brown face, with the deep cut lines, the eyes, &c., always to me with a deep latent sadness in the expression." Whitman quoted this article in his 1876 book Memoranda During the War, adding the phrase: "We have got so that we always exchange bows, and very cordial ones."[2]
The Soldiers' Home stands on 251 acres (1.02 km2) atop the third highest point in Washington. The Home was designated a
President Lincoln's Cottage opened to the public on February 18, 2008. A reproduction of the Lincoln desk on which he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation was commissioned by the Trust for use in the Cottage. The original drop-lid walnut paneled desk is in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House. The desk is the only surviving piece of furniture that is known to have been placed in the White House and the Cottage during the Lincoln era.
The adjacent Robert H. Smith Visitor Education Center features exhibits about the Soldiers' Home, wartime Washington, D.C., Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief during the Civil War, and a special exhibit gallery. President Lincoln's Cottage and Visitor Education Center is open to the public for tours seven days a week.
See also
- United States Soldiers' and Airmen's Home National Cemetery
- 150th Pennsylvania Infantry
- List of national monuments of the United States
References
- ^ The Armed Forces Retirement Home: the history-and future-of caring for our veterans. - Free Online Library
- ISBN 978-1626199736.
- ^ "President Lincoln's Cottage Lays Groundwork for Bright Future at Storied Site" (PDF). President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home. Retrieved 28 July 2016.
- Preservation Vol 59, Number 1, Jan/Feb 2007, page 6
External links
- Official website: President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home
- Armed Forces Retirement Home: Washington, D.C.
- National Trust: President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National Monument
- Presidential Proclamation 7329 of July 7, 2000
- National Historic Landmark information
- Aerial view of exterior restoration of Lincoln Cottage at the Soldiers' Home
- Letters from Mary Todd Lincoln
- The Shot Through Abraham Lincoln's Hat
- Steve Vogel (January 25, 2004). "A Shrinking Operation; Battling Bankruptcy in D.C., Veterans Retirement Home Is Cutting Costs and Care". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012.
- "Armed Forces Retirement Home: Allegations of Poor Care Being Probed". Washington Post. March 23, 2007.
- Jonathan O'Connell (August 15, 2008). "Crescent Resources to transform Armed Forces Retirement Home". Washington Business Journal.
- Jonathan O'Connell (February 17, 2009). "Armed Forces Retirement Home redo falls through". Washington Business Journal.
- Booknotes interview with Matthew Pinsker on Lincoln's Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers' Home, December 21, 2003.
- J.S. Cornell & Son