Lincoln Colored Home

The Lincoln Colored Home was the result of collaboration between local Whites and African-Americans. Eva Carroll Monroe, an African-American, founded the home in 1898 to care for poor African-American orphans; the other three local orphanages only accepted White children. Ms. Monroe moved to Springfield in 1896 where she worked as an aide at a sanitarium. With savings, she and her sister, Olive Price purchased a dilapidated house for the orphanage and old folks home. Mary Lawrence, the White, wealthy widow of a former Mayor of Springfield, donated $1,400 to save the home when the mortgage was overdue. Lawrence and Monroe raised funds for a new building and the house was razed before the brick building was constructed on the same lot. The bricks for the new home were donated by Mrs. Lawrence; they were left over after construction of the Lawrence School. The orphans and elderly women lived in tents in the yard during construction. Mrs. Lawrence died unexpectedly in 1905; her estate donated $7,000 to the Home; the estate owned the building since Mrs. Lawrence had placed the building in her name.

A local newspaper, The Forum, created a calendar as a giveaway in 1909 to anyone who subscribed to the paper for a year at $1.25. Proceeds from the sales were slated to help the home. The Springfield Colored Women's Club met regularly at the Lincoln Colored Home and sponsored events to raise funds for the home. A Juvenile Section of the Women's Club was formed in October 1906; the young ladies planned to raise money to pay off what was due on the purchase of a piano for the Home. A jubilee was held at the Home on May 10th, 1909 to mark the eleventh anniversary of the home. Folks were encouraged to stop by and purchase items the women's clubs had sewn or buy dinner and refreshments; the members in charge of the dinner were Julia Duncan, Martha Hicklin, Ollie Price and Mary Hudson. The Board of Directors of the Home met in March 1910 and announced they had reduced the Home's debt from about $365 to $123, due largely to the work of the "Woman's Club, being greatly aided by the colored citizens in general." They thanked churches for their donations and set as a new goal to wipe out the Home's bills for coal and shoes.

At its maximum residency level, the home held about sixty to seventy orphans and elderly people. The Home switched to being an orphanage only in 1923 when it was not approved for the elderly. The Home began to receive public funding in 1925 through the local Council of Social Agencies, a pre-cursor to United Way. The State refused to license the Home as an orphanage in 1933; foster placements were becoming more popular than institutional housing for orphans, and Ms. Monroe was lacking a college education. Upon losing funding from the Council, the Home was forced to close and the thirty-two children were placed in boarding homes or private homes. Ms. Monroe converted the house into a boarding house and rented out the back as a barber shop. The house was sold in 1944 to pay the medical bills of the house's owner, Susan Lawrence Dana, the daughter of Mrs. Lawrence. The new owner, Edward Hall, allowed Ms. Monroe to continue to live there; she died in January 1950 after being hospitalized for months after being struck by a car.

The brick building has a hipped roof and unknown original window types (they are boarded up). On the 1917 Sanborn map, the house had a porch on the south side of the building; no porch remains. The building appeared unchanged on the 1952 Sanborn map, compared to 1917. The house was purchased at auction in 1988 by a firefighter with an interest in house restoration.

The Lincoln Colored Home was designated an historic landmark by the Springfield City Council in 1997. It was listed in the National Register under Criterion A in 1998. The Lincoln Colored Home is one of dozens of buildings that were surveyed for a 2018 study of the Central East neighborhood of Springfield and its links to local African-American history.

Anonymous. "The Woman's Club Notes." The Forum (Springfield, IL) October 20th 1906. 1-1.

Anonymous. "Calendar of Lincoln Colored O.F.O. Home." The Forum (Springfield, IL) February 20th 1909. 6-6.

Anonymous. "Women's Club Notes." The Forum (Springfield, IL) April 24th 1909. 1-1.

Anonymous. "L. H. BD. Meeting." The Forum (Springfield, IL) March 19th 1910. 7-7.

Cook-Witter, Inc.. The Lincoln Colored Home: The Cooperative Spirit Was Alive. The Cook-Witter Report. March 5th 2003. 1 - 4.

Dettro, Chris. "Member of WWII Tuskegee Airmen Dies in Springfield." State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL) January 19th 2012.

Mansberger, Floyd. Stratton, Christopher. NRHP Thematic Survey of Springfield's African-American Community and the Central East Neighborhood. Springfield, IL. Fever River Research, 2018.