Edwards Place

Built in 1833, Edwards Place is a historic, Italianate Villa style house in Springfield, Illinois. It is the oldest home in the city still on its original foundation. Like many other buildings in the area, it has connections to Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd, went there on many occasions to socialize with their good friends Benjamin S. Edwards and his wife Helen; a brother of Benjamin was married to a sister of Mary. It is now a museum showing the social and political life of the mid-nineteenth century. It contains several artifacts and furniture from the time period, including the "courting couch" on which Abraham Lincoln and Mary sat during their courtship. In-person and virtual (via Zoom) guided tours are offered by the Springfield Art Association; add-on activities like historical crafting and tea parties are available. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1969.

The house was built in 1833 by Thomas Hougan and he and his family resided there until 1843. The house was originally Greek Revival style and L-shaped. The Edwards family and their descendants lived there between 1843 and 1909. Benjamin S. Edwards (1818-1886) and his wife, Helen (1819-1909) were prominent local residents; Benjamin's father, Ninian (1775-1833) served as Illinois Territorial Governor beginning in 1809; Ninian was elected a U.S. Senator from Illinois in 1818 and the third Governor of Illinois in 1826. Benjamin S. was an attorney, as was his eldest brother, Ninian Wirt Edwards (1809-1889). Ninian Wirt married Elizabeth, the sister of Mary Todd (the future wife of Abraham Lincoln). Benjamin S. was educated at Yale and married Helen Dodge, the sister of a Yale classmate, in 1839. The couple settled in Springfield in 1840, where they went on to have three daughters (Helen, Alice, and Mary/Mollie). Benjamin S. formed a law partnership with John T. Stuart in 1843; the couple moved into their home purchased from the Hougan family in June 1843. Since Lincoln also was a practicing lawyer in town, he and Benjamin S. knew each other well.

Benjamin S. expanded the house in the mid-1850s to the proportions it is today. It was an important gathering place during the mid 1850s and a center for the city's social and political life during the Civil War. Edwards Place hosted Stephen Douglass, a friend of Benjamin S., for a rally in 1858 when the Democrat was running for the U.S. Senate. Benjamin S. was more aligned with the views of Douglass than those of the Republicans, including Lincoln. The real estate of Benjmain S. was valued at $40,000 in 1860; his personal property was worth an estimated $20,000. He (age 42) and Helen (40) shared the house in 1860 with their three daughters (19, 16, 11) and five domestic servants who had been born in Ireland or Germany (19 to 40). In the late 1860s, Benjamin S. was elected Judge of the Eighth Judicial Court. When he died in 1886, Benjamin S. was head of the Illinois State Bar Association. The Edwards middle daughter, Alice and her husband, Benjamin H. Ferguson, settled on her father's property in a house they built in 1883 to the northeast of the mansion (see the attached 1896 map).

In 1900, an 80-year-old Helen Edwards lived in the mansion with a grandson, Thomas Condell (35), and two Irish-born servants: a housekeeper, Ellen Reilly (28) and a cook, Ellen Bonar (65). Helen passed away in 1909. One of Edwards's daughters (a widowed and childless Alice Ferguson) gave the house to the Springfield Art Association in 1913 for use as classroom and gallery space. The group first asked if they could use the house and were surprised when the property was instead donated to them. The first-floor parlors became an art gallery, and the upstairs bedrooms were used for art classes. The association began transitioning the home to a museum and built a gallery space to the east of the house in 1938; the gallery was expanded southward in the late 1960s in a style similar to the mansion. The house remains a museum today, interpreting the time period of the mid-1850s when the home was enlarged and given an Italianate Villa appearance, with a hipped roof over the main block topped by a cupola and four chimneys.

General admission costs are $5 for adults and free for those age ten and under. Tours include the restored first and second stories. Highlights include the "courting couch" where Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd sat during their courtship, moved here from the parlor of the Ninian Wirt Edwards (the brother of Benjamin S.) home; Ninian Wirt's house was on S. Second St. and was demolished in 1918 for new construction of the Illinois Secretary of State office. A piano from Ninian Wirt's home that was probably played during the Lincoln wedding in November 1842 is on display at Edwards Place. Special events currently held at Edwards Place include ice cream socials in the summer with "Abe and Mary Lincoln" in attendance and a holiday open house on the first Saturday in December.

Kirchner, Charles. NRHP nomination of Edwards Place, Springfield, Illinois. National Register of Historic Places. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1969.

Springfield Art Association. Plan your visit to Edwards Place, Edwards Place Historic Home: Visit. November 1st, 2023. Accessed December 26th, 2023. https://www.edwardsplace.org/plan-your-visit.

Springfield Art Association. History of Edwards Place, Edwards Place Historic Home: History. November 1st, 2023. Accessed December 26th, 2023. https://www.edwardsplace.org/history.

Springfield Art Association. Annual events, Edwards Place Historic Home: Events. November 1st, 2023. Accessed December 26th, 2023. https://www.edwardsplace.org/upcoming-events.

U.S. Census Bureau. Household of B.S. Edwards, Springfield district 16, Sangamon County, Illinois, dwelling 1782, family 1788. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1860.

U.S. Census Bureau. Household of Helen K. Edwards, 801 N. 5th St., Springfield district 88, Sangamon County, Illinois, dwelling 140, family 150. Washington, DC. U.S. Government, 1900.