Friday, April 8 – On our last day in Springfield, IL, we visited the First Presbyterian Church that Lincoln attended while living in Springfield. Marsha checked the website before we left and it said that we could visit the pew that the Lincoln family sat for Sunday services. She is so easily thrilled. Unfortunately, the church was locked, and we were not able to view the Lincoln Pew. Add to your notes, the church is only open during the summer months.
We then visited the Great Western Depot, AKA the Lincoln Depot. This is the train station where Lincoln gave his famous farewell address to the people of Springfield as he was leaving for Washington DC to be inaugurated as the 16th President of the United States. We viewed a video reenactment of the goodbye speech and enjoy the many antique displays.
The Lincoln-Herndon Law offices are being renovated, so we just walked by and tried to image what it would have been like to see Mr. Lincoln enter this building.
Our last stop was the Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon. The Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon is one of the largest and finest of the world's carillons. The Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon is the gift of Senator Thomas Rees, publisher of Illinois State Register. Rees provided a $200,000 bequest to build the carillon and left very specific instructions in his will regarding the number of bells and the location of the carillon. The Rees carillon boasts 67 cast bronze bells covering a range of 5 1/2 chromatic octaves. The total weight of the bells is 82,753 pounds; the largest (bourdon) bell, a G-flat, weighs 7 1/2 tons, while the smallest weighs 22 pounds.We arrived early and were treated to the beautiful sounds of the bells.
That was enough for today. Marsha has been taking it easy on Paul since we extended our stay, so we returned to the State Fairgrounds RV Park. This is our last post from Springfield, IL. We had a wonderful time. What a clean, historic town.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!
