“I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington." Abraham Lincoln left his home of seventeen years to serve as president of a nation on the verge of Civil War. The Lincoln home has been restored to its 1860 appearance, revealing Lincoln as husband, father, and politician.

The Old State Capitol is a reconstruction of Illinois' fifth statehouse, the first to be located in Springfield.  Lincoln visited the building frequently as both a lawyer and a politician, serving in the building during his last term in the Illinois House of Representatives.  Here he delivered the famous 1858 "House Divided" speech in Representatives Hall.  The building was the scene of the assassinated President's final laying-in-state on May 3-4, 1865.