Listing Through Life

We drove on back roads from Springfield to Vandalia to see the building used as the state capitol from 1836-1839. The government was in Vandalia beginning in 1820, but this building wasn’t built until rumors started flying that Springfield wanted the capitol. It wasn’t enough, and the government moved in 1839.

This building served as the county seat for many years, but it is still in its original condition, except for the portico on the front. It was decorated for Christmas, with greenery and fruit all over the place.

Again, we had the place to ourselves. The lady who gave us our tour was very much in love with her building and knew quite a bit about it. She geared her talk to daughter. At one point, she asked her if she knew what a “woof” was. My daughter said no, and the lady explained that it was a big wild dog. (She meant “wolf.”) My wife and I had a hard time not laughing because we hadn’t known what a woof was either.

Abraham Lincoln attended here (in the room below) as a state legislator in 1834, the first state-wide office in his political career. He made several speeches here, and it was in this building in 1837 that he received his law license.

The photo on the left below shows the Senate chamber. The Illinois State Supreme Court chamber is on the right.

One more note: In front of the building is a large statue of a woman holding a child with another clinging to her skirts. It’s called the “Madonna of the Trail,” and it’s one of 12 similar statues placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution to mark the old National Road that ran between Cumberland, Maryland and Vandalia. The woman symbolizes “the courage and faith of the women whose strength and love aided so greatly in conquering the wilderness and establishing permanent homes.”

From the Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices, we walked across the street to the building that served as the Illinois State Capitol from 1839 until 1876. Well, it’s sorta that building anyway. When the state of Illinois moved out, Sangamon County moved in and used it as a courthouse. They changed everything around and even jacked up the entire building and added a new first floor.

In the 1960’s, the building was taken totally apart. The bricks were stacked on the state fair grounds. The entire thing was then rebuilt, much of it based on guesswork. Only the exterior bricks and a few pieces of furniture are original.

When we walked in, the place was empty. A guy wandered out from somewhere and told us we could walk about if we cared to but there would be no tours. We were disappointed, but what could we do? We began ambling about. After just a few minutes, a lady came from somewhere and said she’d give us a tour. This meant that we actually got to go into the various rooms, which was nice, but it was obvious that she didn’t know much. She geared her entire talk to my daughter and made the assumption that she had an Illinois public school education. She kept asking her things like, “Have you ever heard of Abraham Lincoln?” Whenever I asked her a question, she rambled on and never really said anything. We found out a lot more about a party, recently held in the building, that a friend of hers had attended, than we did about the history of the capitol.

The building was beautiful, inside and out, but I was unhappy with the tour. I was also unhappy that the copy of the Gettysburg Address that was supposed to be on display in the lobby was nowhere to be seen.

Anyway, this is what the state clerk’s office might have looked like. The desk that is barely visible in the lower left-hand corner is one of the few original pieces of furniture in the building.

And this is the governor’s reception room, which served as Lincoln’s headquarters following his presidential nomination. It has been remodeled based on an engraving from Leslie’s Illustrated magazine, to look as it did at that time.

 Continuing on our tour, here we have the senate chamber. One of the original desks is in the room, and the remainder were patterned after it.

And here we have Representatives Hall. This is where the famous party took place, so all the furniture was pushed to one side of the room. It was in this room that Lincoln’s body was laid out for viewing after his death (duh!).