Twelve buildings in a four block area of Springfield, Illinois, appear as they did when Abraham Lincoln bought this house for $1,200 with Mary Todd in 1844. Lincoln lived here until he became the 16th president in 1861. During his residency, he was a “prairie” lawyer, a Whig representative in the Illinois House, a member of the US House of Representatives, a founder of the Republican Party, a staunch abolitionist, a debater with Senator Stephen Douglas over slavery and a newspaper publisher. He was also the father of four boys. One of them died from tuberculosis in this home.
