Washington, DC

Today for the first time ever the President Lincoln Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home opens to the public. It has just completed a seven year renovation project sponsored through the National Trust of Historic Preservation. Guided tours are the only way to see the Lincoln Cottage. Tickets must be purchased for the tours and it is recommended you purchase them online here in advance. Tickets cost $12 for adults, $6 for children ages 6 to 12, and $8 for National Trust Members. The tours last about an hour. Tours begin on the hour starting at 10am Monday through Saturday with the last tour starting at 3pm. On Sundays the first tour is at 12pm and the last tour is at 3pm. Starting April 1st they will go into summer hours and the last tour times will be 4pm with the starting tour times staying the same.

The visitors center is open daily 9:30am to 4:30pm (6:30pm when summer hours begin April 1st). It appears this is free and does not require a ticket. Here there are four self-guided exhibits related to Lincoln, the Civil War, and the Lincoln Cottage. There is also an interactive exhibit called Lincoln’s Toughest Decisions and a Special Exhibitions Gallery. The Special Exhibitions Gallery will have the Emancipation Proclamation on display with associated artifacts as its first exhibit.

President Abraham Lincoln used this home as a seasonal home from June to November in 1862, 1863, and 1864. He would commute to the White House alone in his early days as President, but later as the Civil tensions increased he was talked into allowing a cavalry escort. In 1864, there was an assassination attempt that failed when President Lincoln was riding alone to the cottage. From then on he was assigned a personal bodyguard to be with him at all times, which obviously in the end did not work out too well.

This sounds like a great historical site that is new in that the public can see it and is by far easier to get into than the White House, but has also served a similar purpose in the past. I sure cannot wait to get over here in the next few weeks and when I do I plan to write a special post about seeing it along with some photos (depends on what they allow).