The Piano Lincoln Heard

[davg2000]

(01-11-2016 06:06 PM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  Yeah, I was disappointed to go to the Edwards Place website and find it wasn't the home in which Mary stayed. Still looks like a nice place to visit (and it does have the "courting couch" from Ninian Edwards' parlor):

http://www.edwardsplace.org/

http://www.edwardsplace.org/#!courting-couch/czpn

The home of Ninian and Elizabeth Edwards was razed in 1918 to make way for the Centennial Building, which later became the Howlett Building, on the grounds of the Illinois Capitol. It's hard to defend this decision now, but evidently it was thought that the old house had been altered so much since its 1836 construction that much of its connection to Lincoln had been lost. See here: http://sangamoncountyhistory.org/wp/?p=1611. No doubt that in 1876, when the "new" Illinois Capitol was built, the Edwards home was deemed safe. Today, any connection to Lincoln in Springfield is sacred, so that old home would be untouchable.

It appears that Springfield awoke a bit too late to what it had: in addition to the loss of the Ninian Edwards home, only one of the Lincoln law offices remains--the Tinsley building at 6th and Adams, where Lincoln practiced from 1843 to 1852.

However, the home of Ninian's brother Benjamin remains, as Edwards Place, where one may find the famous "courting couch" and, soon, the piano. It's hard to imagine that home being demolished for a public building.