Abraham Lincoln House & Garden

Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd Lincoln and their sons lived on the corner of 8th & Jackson Streets for 17 years from 1844 until they moved to Washington D.C. to begin his Presidency. The Lincolns rented out the house with the intention of returning to Springfield. But after President Lincoln was assassinated, Mary declared she was too distraught to return to the place of her happiest memories. In 1887, Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln, donated the house to the State of Illinois under the condition that it would be forever well tended and open to the public.

In 1956, Winnetka Garden Club won the Founders Fund Award to restore the garden at the house. A committee of members researched books, letters and photographs to replicate the look of the plantings during Lincoln’s residency. They found that although Mary loved flowers, neither she nor her husband were known as gardeners or devoted much effort to landscaping the grounds. It was Mary’s sister, Frances Todd Wallace, who filled the horticulture vacuum by planting flowers each year in the front yard.

Winnetka Garden Club cared for the Lincoln’s garden for twenty years with annuals and perennials during which approximately one million people visited the property which was then under the guardianship of the Colonial Dames of America. In 1974, The National Park Service took over the administration of the Lincoln home and Winnetka Garden Club’s connection came to an end.