Tourism center opens in building that houses Lincoln law office

The tourism bureau of Springfield, Illinois, recently opened a welcome center in a downtown building that once contained Abraham Lincoln’s law office.

The Springfield State Journal-Register reported:

The building, on the southeast corner of the Old Capitol Plaza, offers the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau a central location for tourists to stop in and get information on the city’s historic sites.
And though, like Springfield as a whole, Lincoln may be the reason tourists initially visit the building, city tourism officials hope they the will leave it with a desire to see everything else the city has to offer.
“Of course, we know Lincoln and Route 66 bring them to Springfield,” said SCVB tourism manager Jeff Berg. “But the whole purpose of the center, as you see as you look around, is to expand and show our visitors everything else that we have to do while they’re in Springfield.”
The renovated space, which cost about $100,000, dons a sleek, modern look, with pictures lining the walls that promote Springfield’s recreational opportunities, its connection to Route 66 as well as entertainment and dining options, in addition to Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln Online has some fun facts about the Lincoln-Herndon Law Office:

In 1845 Gibson Harris joined the firm as a student and clerk. Years later he recalled the office this way: “The furniture, somewhat dilapidated, consisted of one small desk and a table, a sofa or lounge with a raised head at one end, and a half-dozen plain wooden chairs. The floor was never scrubbed….Over the desk a few shelves had been enclosed; this was the office bookcase holding a set of Blackstone, Kent’s Commentaries, Chitty’s Pleadings, and a few other books. A fine law library was in the Capitol building across the street to which the attorneys of the place had access.”

In his celebrated Lincoln biography, Herndon described his law partner’s habits in the office: “When he reached the office, about nine o’clock in the morning, the first thing he did was to pick up a newspaper, spread himself out on an old sofa, one leg on a chair, and read aloud, much to my discomfort. Singularly enough Lincoln never read any other way but aloud.”

Herndon also observed Lincoln’s haphazard approach to office organization: “Lincoln had always on the top of our desk a bundle to papers into which he slipped anything he wished to keep and afterwards refer to. It was a receptacle of general information. Some years ago, on removing the furniture from the office, I took down the bundle and blew from the top the liberal coat of dust that had accumulated thereon. Immediately underneath the string was a slip bearing this endorsement, in his hand: ‘When you can’t find it anywhere else, look in this.'”

Lincoln and Herndon moved from this location in 1852 to another building on the west side of the square. Their partnership was not officially dissolved until Lincoln’s death in 1865. Just before Lincoln left Springfield to become President he told Herndon, “If I live I’m coming back some time, and then we’ll go right on practising law as if nothing had ever happened.”

The visitors bureau also has an office at 109 N. Seventh St. that will stay open, as well.

Hours will be from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. The bureau expects to open it seven days a week starting in the spring.

The second and third floors of the building will remain closed to the public, but the state may reopen them by summer.

(Image of Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices in Springfield, Illinois, in 2012 by Teemu008 via Flickr)