Lincoln Springfield Home and Visitor Center, Illinois

After a few years in various jobs, including working as a surveyor, postmaster, and a clerk in a general store in New Salem, Illinois, Lincoln moved to Springfield, Illinois, to practice law. This town, the state capitol, would be his hometown for the rest of his life. The Lincoln Home National Historic Site is a four-block area in the middle of town which has been taken over by the National Park Service, which is restoring the neighborhood around the house he lived in for most of his time in Springfield. Abraham Lincoln purchased the house here in 1844, and it was the only house he ever owned. The house was expanded over the years as his family grew. He was living here in 1860, when a delegation of Republicans came to his door to tell him he had been nominated as their candidate to run for the presidency. He campaigned mostly without leaving town. In February, 1861, after winning the election, he left Springfield for Washington, and the Civil War, expecting to return. He did return, in 1865, though as a memory, a legend, and a corpse.