My wife and I spent a weekend in Springfield, Illinois, over the 2023 Memorial Day weekend. This town of just over 113,000 people may be the smallest state capital I have ever visited. I wouldn’t describe it as spectacular, but it does have a certain charm. There are several good restaurants and pubs downtown, and the hotel where we stayed was comfortable, clean, and convenient. The architecture of the state government buildings is impressive, especially the restored Old State Capitol that served as the state house from 1840 to 1876. On February 10, 2007, Barack Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States on the southeast lawn of the building. The new State Capitol was completed in 1888, although the legislature began meeting in the building a decade earlier while it was under construction. Designed in the shape of a Greek cross, the capitol features a magnificent dome that carries the structure to a greater height than the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.

The major tourist draw for Springfield is a collection of attractions associated with the town’s most famous citizen, President Abraham Lincoln, who practiced law and started a family here. The Lincolns resided in the city from 1837 to 1847, the year Lincoln was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Though his most memorable years were spent in the nation’s capital, he built his legal and political career in Springfield and was buried there after his assassination in 1865. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield is a first-class destination for people of all ages interested in history, presidents, or politics. The museum’s interactive exhibits and video presentations are joined by lifelike replicas of Lincoln, his family, and his associates to tell the story of the president’s early childhood in Kentucky and follow his path to the White House and on to his tragic death.

We also took a stroll around the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, which is made up of a restored and/or replicated section of the town dating back to the 1840s and includes the actual house where Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln raised their family. There are exhibits about the Lincolns and their neighbors in several of the other homes and buildings at the site, and visitors can book tours of the Lincoln home too. There is an interpretive center filled with information about the 16^th President and what life was life in Springfield in the mid-19^th century.

The Lincoln Tomb and War Memorials State Historic Site is also located in Springfield in Oak Ridge Cemetery. It is a massive granite structure crowned with a towering obelisk. Tours of the tomb are self-guided, and we were lucky enough to be the only people inside during our visit. The hallway leading back to the actual tombs of Lincoln and his family is filled with bronze statues of the President, including a miniature replica of the Lincoln Memorial Monument at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It is a solemn place worthy of such a celebrated and significant leader of the nation. It is a humbling experience to see it in person.