Springfield

Springfield does not hide its favorite son. Lia and I noticed it within minutes of arriving — Lincoln’s name on street signs, diner menus, and the license plates of half the cars in the parking lot — and rather than finding it kitschy, we came to appreciate how thoroughly the city has preserved the actual, walkable geography of his life. The four-block historic neighborhood around his house is closed to through traffic, the wooden sidewalks and picket fences restored to their 1860s appearance, so that turning a corner feels less like sightseeing and more like stepping backward into a specific Tuesday in 1860.

The Lincoln Home and Old State Capitol

The Lincoln Home itself is a plain, handsome Greek Revival house on Eighth and Jackson, the only home Lincoln ever owned, and the National Park Service rangers who lead tours through its rooms talk about the family with an intimacy that made the history feel startlingly close. Downtown, the Old State Capitol’s limestone rotunda is where Lincoln delivered his “House Divided” speech and where his body lay in state after the assassination; we stood in the same chamber, sunlight falling through tall windows onto worn wooden floors, and felt the weight of both moments at once. A few blocks over, the reconstructed law offices where Lincoln practiced with William Herndon still smell faintly of woodsmoke and old paper.

Route 66 and the horseshoe sandwich

Springfield sits squarely on old Route 66, and the city leans into it with neon-lit diners and a downtown mural trail tracing the Mother Road’s path through the Midwest. We ducked into a decades-old lunch counter for the local specialty, a horseshoe sandwich — an open-faced slab of toast piled with meat, a heap of fries, and a river of cheese sauce that no fork could quite contain. It is not subtle food, but it is exactly the kind of regional oddity worth crossing a state for, and we left the counter grateful for the long walk back to the hotel.

Getting There

Springfield sits almost exactly halfway between Chicago and St. Louis along Interstate 55, roughly three hours’ drive from either city, and Amtrak’s Lincoln Service connects all three with a scenic run through the Illinois prairie. Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport offers a handful of direct flights to Chicago for a quicker trip. The historic core is compact and best explored on foot, with free parking available near the visitor center on Jefferson Street.