Day 3 – Abraham Lincoln’s House

Our hotel was walking distance to Abraham Lincoln’s house as well as the presidential library and the Lincoln Museum. After a quick breakfast in our hotel room, we made our way to the visitor’s center to get tickets. Tickets are free but they are first come first serve. We arrived just as the visitor’s center opened and were greeted by National Park Rangers. They put us on the first tour of the day at 8:45am and we were assigned a ranger named John who was celebrating his 25th birthday. John was extremely passionate about the life of Abraham Lincoln and made no effort to hide it. He smiled throughout the tour and it was obvious that he loved his job.

We learned that the vast majority of the house – interior and exterior – is all in its original form. In the photo gallery below you will see the original fireplace where Abraham used to lay down and read. You will see his original desk which looked too small to fit a 6 foot 4 inch man. In the kitchen, the wood burning stove is the original stove and one that was purchased by Abraham as a gift to his wife Mary. The banister leading up the stairs was original and one of the few things we were allowed to touch in the home and was, as John said, “about the closest thing  possible to shaking hands with Abraham Lincoln.”

The house features motion sensors that sound an alarm if you venture off the carpeted path so other than the banister leading up the stairs we couldn’t touch much. Except for AJ. He touched everything. One interesting note that John pointed out was that the tiny kitchen was about the same size as the log cabin on Knob Creek, Kentucky where Abraham lived with his father, step-mother and siblings.

It was a really powerful tour. I would definitely do it again. Everyone enjoyed it. I’ll add some more pictures to the gallery as Lauren and the boys share their pictures with me.