It was a proud day for the Lincoln Forum. On Friday, July 7, one of the first projects undertaken by this organization at its initial meeting of the Board of Advisers blossomed before the national press and hundreds of dignitaries and guests, as President Clinton declared that Abraham Lincoln's summer White House, known to most as the Anderson Cottage, is now the President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National Monument. It will now receive not only the full protection and benefits accorded national historic treasures, but $750,000 of the next fiscal year's budget will go toward its restoration.
On a sun-drenched day that could hardly have been more perfect, with the building serving as a backdrop for his presentation, President Clinton spoke of a historic treasure that "has almost been forgotten for more than a century." He said, "There is fragile, vital history in this house. Today we come to reclaim it, to preserve it, and to make it live again." He pointed out that "last year more than 1 million people visited Fords Theater alone. But barely 100 made it here to Anderson Cottage, where Lincoln lived and worked; where his son played and his wife found solace."
Sitting front row center in the crowd assembled before the speakers' stand, and specifically mentioned by the president for the critical role he has played in bringing the Anderson Cottage to national attention, was Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Several weeks earlier Moe had announced at a press conference that this building had been designated the number one endangered historic site in the country. His tireless efforts over the past several years had brought this building from virtual anonymity (even most Lincoln historians had been unaware of its existence) into the light of day.
As most Forum members know, the effort that resulted in this building achieving national monument status, began with the Lincoln Forum and individuals who have been involved with this organization since its inception. On a 1995 historic tour of Civil War Washington, sponsored by Advisory Board member Pete Brown's History America, Advisory Board member David Long took the group to the Anderson Cottage. In the room where Lincoln drafted the second version of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, the tour leader talked about the importance of this site in American history and the need to do something to preserve it as a national landmark. Present in the group that day was Lincoln Forum Treasurer Chuck Platt, who had known Richard Moe and worked with him in the past, wrote a letter to Moe describing the building and its historical significance. He also suggested that if Moe were interested, he should contact Long to learn more about the history of the structure and its association with Lincoln's presidency. That is exactly what Moe did, and he asked Long to come to Washington and make a presentation before the assembled Directors of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Civil War Trust. After the presentation, at a meeting that also included Lincoln Forum members Paul Pascal (present as the President of the Lincoln group of the District of Columbia), Edna Greene Medford, (Professor of History at Howard University who is active in symposia and events relating to Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation), and Michael Maione, Ford's Theatre historian, the various Directors and other officials present agreed unanimously that it was a historic preservation project that should be
vigorously pursued.
That November, at the First Annual Symposium of the Lincoln Forum, Chairman Frank Williams asked Long to make a presentation to the Board of Advisors about this site. Both Chairman Williams and Vice Chairman Harold Holzer spoke in strong support of the Lincoln Forum taking an active role in promoting and supporting any effort to preserve and protect this site and its history relative to the Lincoln presidency. Williams appointed an Anderson Cottage Committee with Long as Chair (see previous issues of The Lincoln Forum Bulletin), and members including Edna Greene Medford, Pete Brown, Chuck Platt, Dan Weinberg, Paul Pascal, Laurie Verge, and Michael Maione. Frank Williams and Harold Holzer both have participated as ex officio members of the committee as well, and have been present for meetings held with representatives of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
From that meeting to the present, Moe's efforts have been unceasing. It took him some time to locate private funding to pay for the feasibility study, but eventually it was another Lincoln Forum member, Louise Taper, who brought this project and its need for funding before the Taper Foundation, which financed the feasibility study. At that point things began moving very quickly. Meetings last December and February sponsored by the Trust, resulted in decisions that led directly to the hiring of a fulltime project manager and the announcement by Moe in June that the Trust had listed the cottage as the most endangered historic site in the United States. Also the Trust has announced a Board of Advisers to oversee the research on the history of the Lincolns' residence at Anderson Cottage, plus whatever can be uncovered about the three or four other presidents who also lived at some time during their terms of office at this site. Lincoln Forum members comprise a significant portion of that Board of Advisers, including Vice Chairman Harold Holzer, Professor Gabor Boritt of Gettysburg College and the Civil War Institute, Professor Philip Paludan, Professor David Long of East Carolina University, and Professor David Herbert Donald.
This article, and the congratulations it conveys, would not be complete without the mention of one more person. Until recently, when she took a position with the Department of Veterans' Affairs, Kerri Childress had spent the past ten years working as the Public Affairs Officer at the United States Soldiers and Airmens Home (USSAH, or as it is often called, the Old Soldiers' Home). During that time Kerri came to realize the historical significance of the building, and unlike many previous administrators who had feared that publicizing the building would bring droves of people onto the grounds who would exploit or disturb the peace of the residents of USSAH, she welcomed the prospect that at some point in time, something would be done to bring this hidden treasure to light, and convert it into a historical monument/shrine/museum. Kerri was the living link between this building's rich undiscovered history, and a generation of historians and preservationists who, once they learned about it, would finally bring it into the full light of day and announce its existence to the world. We are grateful to Kerri for this.
It remains a source of amazement to everybody who has become involved in this project along the way, that this incredibly important historic site, remained so long unknown and undiscovered to people who spend their entire careers writing, interpreting, and teaching history.
Never again will the President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National Monument be unknown. Never again will it be relegated to the dust bins of history, an artifact covered in a veil of anonymity, hidden away from view of a public too busy with the hustle and bustle of the workaday world to stop and pay homage to one of the nation's most important historic structures. Now it will be groomed and made structurally sound, restored to its 1862 appearance so that visitors can come learn the rich story of its youth.
We are particularly proud, while humbled, as members of the Lincoln Forum, that this project, one of the first initiatives undertaken by this organization while still in its infancy, has been so spectacularly successful. This building and the grounds immediately surrounding it, can become the single most important Lincoln site in the nation, and the only one related just to his presidency. Here he worked, slept, ate, romped with Tad, was fired at by an assassin, and wrote the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation that was issued on September 22, 1862. Here, more than anywhere in Washington, you can genuinely feel Lincoln's presence, commune with the man who is the inspiration for our organization's existence, celebrate, and meditate on the man poet Walt Whitman called, "My Captain." We all deserve to feel proud about what has been accomplished.
-David E. Long
