Wealthy Washington banker George Riggs completed the "Corn Rigs" Cottage at his 250 acre summer retreat in 1842. The federal government acquired part of the property in 1851 and established a military asylum for veterans known as the Soldiers' Home, now known as the Armed Forces Retirement Home. The Lincolns retreated to the Cottage in the hot Washington summers. Lincoln was not the first president to do so; Buchanan was also invited to spend a few summers there, and after Lincoln, Presidents Hayes and Arthur also spent time at the Cottage. By the beginning of the Civil War, there were four buildings on the grounds. Lincoln commuted regularly to the White House for official business during the day, but spent his evenings at the cottage. His wife Mary wrote to a friend stating, We are truly delighted with this retreat...the drives and walks around here are delightful."
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Restored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and opened to the public for the first time in 2008, the cottage allows visitors to learn about a place that was news even to Lincoln historians. Frank Milligan, the director of the Lincoln Cottage, says much of the information about the former president comes from soldiers who guarded Lincoln when he was in residence there.
Riggs eventually sold the house to the federal government, which needed a retirement home for veterans, and though earlier presidents stayed at the cottage, no president loved the place as Lincoln did. And so, in the summer, Lincoln was a commuter, riding on horseback 4 miles a day down to his White House office.
Any serious use of the cottage was over after Hayes. With improved transportation, presidents were likely to go anywhere, and they took their vacations at their homes or other places specially selected. Anderson Cottage remained on the campus, itself expanded with new buildings, until it looked like a small university. Late in the 20th century the cottage was in part a recreation place. The living room was a café, a good place for a sandwich and a beer, with neon throwing a tawdry glow onto the walls.
The summer of 1864 was one of the bloodiest in American history. Against a background of the horrible battles of the last year of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and his family were moving to their summer home on a hill overlooking the city. Next to his cottage refuge was an army hospital and the nations first national military cemetery. The cost of war was visible to him every day of his presidency, even at his summer retreat.
Lincoln spent almost one-quarter of his presidency at the Old Soldiers' Home, and Pinsker carefully outlines the major political and military issues that confronted Lincoln during his "sabbaticals" at the cottage. He does not claim that the Old Soldiers' Home was the place where the Illinoisan rendered some of the most important decisions of the war. Pinsker is more concerned with understanding the evolution of Lincoln's wartime thinking within the specific context of the president's routine at the cottage and his daily commute to the White House. Although this approach yields few new interpretations, it reveals how Lincoln's daily life shaped a range of decisions including his endorsements of emancipation and conscription. Pinsker believes that the informal setting of the cottage, in contrast to the White House, allowed Lincoln to reconnect with the people. Wounded soldiers at nearby hospitals, the guards stationed at the cottage, and contrabands who camped near the Soldiers' Home provided the president with meaningful opportunities to access the country's mood. To Pinsker's credit, he is careful [End Page 320] not to exaggerate the importance of these chance encounters, but it is clear that such meetings, however fleeting, grounded the president, restored his sense of equilibrium, and fortified his determination to make tough decisions. Interacting with the people must have also reminded him of the old days in Springfield where he enjoyed the companionship and conversation of ordinary folks going about their everyday lives.
Even within the more relaxed setting of the Soldiers' Home Lincoln did not suddenly turn into a homespun joker who recited humorous stories on the cottage's front porch. Lincoln could rarely escape his duties, and the unrelenting pressure resulted in frequent and often radical mood swings. Pinsker not only shows all of Lincoln's faces, but he also does an impressive job of connecting the emotional side of the president to his political experience. During the summer of 1864, when moderate and Radical members of his own party wanted to cast him aside, Lincoln struggled to contain his anger as well as to keep his commitment to ending slavery. Rather than publicly lash out at his critics or retreat from the Emancipation Proclamation, he clarified his thinking about the issues of black freedom for himself and his political enemies. Destroying slavery, Lincoln concluded, must remain a Union war aim. Pinsker believes the president was able to reach this monumental decision at the Soldiers' Home because he found the environment to be intellectually and emotionally liberating.
"Four presidents of the United States escaped the heat and humidity of summer in Washington, DC at The Old Soldiers' Home on a hill three miles from the White House. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln spent June to November, 1862-1864 in a 34-room Gothic Revival 'cottage' there. He reportedly made his last visit to the house, on April 13, 1865, the day before his assassination. He found cool breezes and quiet, but he brought his wartime responsibilities with him. Lincoln was staying in this house when he wrote the final draft of the Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862. Frederick Douglass, the famous African American abolitionist and writer, called the proclamation 'the immortal paper, making slavery forever impossible in the United States.'
Wealthy Washington, DC banker George Riggs completed the 'Corn Rigs' cottage at his 250-acre summer retreat in 1842. The irregular shape of the house, its many gables, latticed windows, and elaborate gingerbread trim mark it as Gothic Revival, a style considered particularly appropriate for country 'cottages.' In 1851, Riggs offered to sell his property to the United States Government, which was looking for a place to create a home for retired and disabled veterans of the United States Army.
Originally proposed in 1827, plans for a military asylum stalled until General Winfield Scott designated part of the money Mexico City paid to avoid invasion during the Mexican War for that purpose. An army committee purchased the Corn Rigs estate in 1851 and opened the house to its new residents the same year. By 1857, the retired soldiers moved into a large new stone Gothic building near the cottage. The Old Soldiers' Home invited President Buchanan to make his summer residence on the grounds of the United States Military Asylum, and Buchanan spent a few weeks out of at least two summers there during his presidency. By the beginning of the Civil War, there were four buildings on the grounds.
President Lincoln visited the Old Soldiers' Home three days after his first inauguration, presumably on the recommendation of President Buchanan. He and his family occupied the house from between June and November in 1862, 1863, and 1864. Each summer the White House staff transported some 19 cartloads of the Lincoln family's belongings to the cottage, though there is no record of exactly what they brought. Located on one of the highest hills in the District of Columbia, the grounds offered solitude and respite from the swampy heat and wartime congestion of the capital. In July 1862, Mary Lincoln wrote a friend, 'We are truly delighted with this retreat...the drives and walks around here are delightful.'"
Lincoln did not escape the Civil War and his burden of leadership. Every morning he rode to the White House to carry out official business, returning to the Old Soldiers' Home every evening. The cavalry units that accompanied him with drawn swords and the hospitals, cemeteries, and camps for former slaves he passed on his route served as constant reminders of the war. When Confederate General Jubal Early attacked Fort Stevens, on July 12, 1864, Lincoln brashly went to observe the battle, even though his family had been evacuated from the Old Soldiers' Home (about one mile from the battle) to the White House for the four days of the battle. He became the only president ever to come under hostile fire while in office. That same summer, one of John Wilkes Booth's plots proposed kidnapping Lincoln along his commute, and a sniper attempted to assassinate him on his way to the cottage.
Lincoln conducted the business of the war even at his retreat. He met with political friends and enemies and discussed military strategy. During his first summer at the cottage, he also formulated his thoughts about emancipation. He prepared a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves in the Confederacy while living there. Most of the war news during the summer of 1862 was bad, and he wanted to wait to make the announcement until after a Union victory. On September 17, Union forces turned back a Confederate invasion of the North at the decisive and bloody battle of Antietam. On September 22, while still living at the cottage, Lincoln published the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, announcing his intention of freeing all the slaves in the rebel states on January 1, 1863.
...Lincoln was not the last president to take advantage of the healthy breezes at the cottage. President Hayes spent the summers of 1877 to 1880 at the house. President Chester A. Arthur stayed there during renovations at the White House in the winter of 1882 and spent summers there as well.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation operates President Lincoln's Cottage as a historic house museum. For more information, visit the President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home website or call 202-829-0436, Ext. 31231. Tickets are required and advance purchase is strongly recommended. An admission fee is charged. Tours are offered daily, year round. All tours begin at the Robert H. Smith Visitor Education Center, adjacent to the cottage, which features related exhibits and media presentations. The site is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. In order to protect the privacy of the 1,200 residents of the Armed Forces Retirement Home, access to President Lincoln's Cottage and its immediate grounds is by guided tour only. 2ff7e9595c
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