The history books have taught Americans the many roles Abraham Lincoln undertook during his presidency.
The Illinois prairie lawyer was commander-in-chief, a keen politician, superb speech-maker and emancipator.
He also was a Washington, D.C., commuter.
All these angles of Lincoln are explained with multimedia expertise during a tour of one of Lincoln’s most overlooked historic sites: The Lincoln Cottage.
Located roughly three-and-a-half miles from Washington, D.C.’s National Mall, the Lincoln Cottage, on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home has been described as the 19th Century Camp David. The home was a retreat for Lincoln when he and the first family wished to relax and temporarily escape the 24-hour-a-day grind at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Every work day, Honest Abe threw a leg over the saddle and trotted off for a 40-minute commute to the Executive Mansion now known as the White House. This tidbit of Lincoln history along with recollections from cottage visitors and Soldiers who surrounded the house are part of the hour-long tour.
A quarter of his presidency was spent at the cottage. During the summer and autumn months, the Lincolns vacated the heat of Washington to spend time at the alternate home located about a mile east of the Georgia Street corridor in northwest Washington, D.C.
“We are not a collections museum. We don’t have it furnished,” said Jenny Phillips, external communications coordinator at Lincoln’s Cottage. “We don’t want the focus to be the chair Lincoln sat on. We want to talk about the bigger ideas [like slavery and the Civil War]. When the Lincolns moved to and from the White House, all the furniture would come from the White House and be shipped back again in the fall.”
The main rooms of interest include the ground floor dining room, library, parlor and the back porch which overlooks the capital city. In these sections of the home, Lincoln planned war strategy, welcomed visitors and formulated the workings of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Gettysburg Address.
Across Lincoln Drive, the Robert H. Smith Visitor Education Center features a mural of Lincoln’s time at the cottage. The artwork, entitled “View of the Soldiers’ Home in Lincoln’s Time” was crafted by William Woodward.
“[The mural] is about 10 years old now,” said tour guide Curtis Harris. “I think they put it in during 2007. We renovated this building to be the museum. It was initially an office building. This building is about 100 years old.”
The cottage is the oldest structure on the Armed Forces Retirement Home grounds, but the site does not hold the notoriety other Lincoln sites like Ford’s Theater or the Lincoln Memorial. In 2017, the cottage staff is attempting to spread the word about one of D.C.’s most overlooked historical sites.
“I live in Petworth just a couple of blocks away, and some of my neighbors don’t even know we’re here,” Phillips said. “We do have a quality tour here. When you come here, it’s really worth the trip or its worth the hike.”
On the north side of the cottage, a life-sized sculpture of Lincoln and his horse look toward the center of town and the executive mansion. The statue highlights Lincoln’s daily commute during the summers and autumns of 1862 through 1864.
The visitor center is open Monday through Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with tours beginning at 10 a.m. Sunday hours for the visitor center are 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tours on Sunday begin at 11 a.m.
The price for general admission is $15 for adults and $5 for children. Admission discounts are available for active-duty and retired military personnel at $12.
The cottage and visitor center are open every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Approximately 30,000 people visited the cottage last year. Lincoln’s Cottage is designated as a National Monument, National Historic Landmark, and it is the only national monument in the nation that receives no federal funds to operate.
For more information, visit http://www.lincolncottage.org.
Pentagram Staff Writer Jim Dresbach can be reached at jdresbach@dcmilitary.com.