The Unofficial Guide to Washington, D. C. by Eve Zibart

Author:Eve Zibart
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781628090178
Publisher: Unofficial Guides
Published: 2014-01-14T16:00:00+00:00

President Lincoln’s Cottage

Location Rock Creek Church Rd. and Upshur St. NW. No Metro access. Contact 202-829-0436; lincolncottage.org. Admission $15 adults, $5 ages 6–12. Hours Monday–Saturday, visitor center open 9:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.; Sunday, visitor center open 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. April–October, hours extended one hour. Closed Thanksgiving, December 25, and January 1.

DESCRIPTION AND COMMENTS This Gothic Revival home—called a cottage and fairly simple, but with 34 rooms—served five chief executives, from James Buchanan to Chester A. Arthur, as a summer retreat; but the length of time Lincoln spent here (from June to November each year from 1862 to 1864), and the fact that several crucial historical events happened here, including the drafting of the Emancipation Proclamation, have indelibly linked it to the Civil War leader. The campus was the original Retired Soldiers’ Home, so the mural in the visitor center across the driveway shows both the President and his son Tad engaging the veterans. The visitor center also has an orientation video and a four-room exhibition center with interactive maps and anecdotes (the President once barely escaped assassination riding from the White House to the cottage, and a bullet hole in his stovepipe hat attests to it) and signed copies of the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery.

In the cottage itself, guides provide part of the narration; dramatic readings and theatrical lighting provide the rest. (An elevator has been added to make most of the cottage accessible.)

TOURING TIPS Guided tours of the cottage are offered Monday–Saturday 10 a.m.–3 p.m. on the hour and Sunday 11 a.m.–3 p.m.; “Emancipation Tours” offered Tuesday and Saturday at 3 p.m. Limited food available on site. Of the several Lincoln-centric sites (Ford’s Theatre, the Lincoln Memorial, Museum of American History), this might be the last on the list, but only because of its limited accessibility.

If you do go, spend a few extra minutes in Rock Creek Cemetery just north of the main gate, where many cabinet members, congressmen, Supreme Court justices, and presidential relations (Henry Adams, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, etc.) are buried. Its most famous monument is the statue and grove dedicated to Adams and his wife, Clover, with the hooded figure by Saint-Gaudens often called “Grief” and landscape setting by famed architect Stanford White. St. Paul’s Church in the cemetery, built in 1712, is the only surviving colonial church in Washington; its 18-inch brick walls and stained glass windows have survived many trials.

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