Where is Abraham Lincoln Depot located?

Abraham Lincoln Depot is located in IL.

How do I get tickets to Abraham Lincoln Depot?

Tickets and current schedules are available on the operator's official website at http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/sites/depot.htm.

Photo by Michael Barera, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Abraham Lincoln Depot

4.5· 72 Google reviews

Share:🔗f 𝕏 💬

Upcoming Events

No ticketed events are currently listed for Abraham Lincoln Depot. Many heritage operators publish schedules seasonally or run on regular open hours instead of dated events.

Check the operator’s website for current hours and special runs, or subscribe to event alerts and we’ll email you when something is scheduled.

About Abraham Lincoln Depot

Stand where Abraham Lincoln said goodbye. From this Springfield depot on February 11, 1861, the president-elect delivered his moving, impromptu Farewell Address to roughly a thousand neighbors before boarding the train to Washington. Just two blocks from the Lincoln Home, the restored first floor is open as a tourist site with National Park Service ranger interpretation in season, plus a Scott Simon-narrated film tracing Lincoln's 12-day inaugural journey.

🌐 Visit Website

History

The Great Western Railroad built this Springfield depot in 1852, and it earned its place in American memory on a gloomy morning in 1861, when citizens assembled to see Abraham Lincoln off to Washington; using the office as a reception room to greet friends one last time, the president-elect mounted the rear platform of his train and delivered the brief, emotional Farewell Address. The Great Western later merged into the Toledo, Wabash, and Western — eventually the Wabash Railroad — which shifted passenger operations elsewhere and used the old building as a freight house, adding a second story in 1900. After the Wabash consolidated operations in Decatur, the building cycled through businesses and warehouse use until a local group bought it in the 1960s and ran it as a museum from 1965 to 1976, surviving a suspected-arson fire in December 1968 that spared portions dating to Lincoln's day. Sangamon State University operated the restored depot from 1977 to 1980 under a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, and Copley Press later managed it. Attorney Jon Gray Noll purchased the building in 2012 and renovated it extensively; the first floor reopened as a tourist site run jointly with the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, and the depot joined the National Register of Historic Places on August 25, 2014.