The memorial consists of a central plaza surrounded by Black granite walls and 22-ton, white concrete world globe. The wall is made of stainless steel and identifies the important battles along with quotes from military leaders and presidents; Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman. The monument was created through the efforts of the World War II Illinois Veterans Memorial Association which began raising funds and support in the late 1990s.

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Dedicated on December 4, 2004, the World War II Illinois Veterans Memorial honors the 987,000 residents of the state who served in the armed services during the war years, and the 22,000 Illinois soldiers and sailors who perished in the war. The monument features a granite wall and memorial plaza with the names of major battles and other information engraved throughout the memorial. The centerpiece of the memorial includes a twelve-foot white marble globe. 

World War II Illinois Veterans Memorial

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This driving tour of the north part of Springfield begins at an historical ballpark and takes you to nineteenth-century homes, several museums, a World War II monument, and the tomb of Abraham Lincoln.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lanphier
Ball Park was constructed in 1925, as Reservoir Park, and operated as a
baseball venue until it was closed in 1949. In 1978, it was reopened after
renovations and renamed Robin Roberts Stadium, after the Hall of Famer who was
from Springfield. From 1932 to 2001, several professional teams have called
Lanphier home, including the Browns, Senators, Cardinals, Redbirds, Giants,
Sultans, and Capitals. The Springfield Sallies, an All-American Girls
Professional Baseball League team, would call the stadium home in 1948 before
becoming a traveling team in 1949 and 1950. Satchel Paige, Robin Roberts, and
Dick Schofield have all played on this field. In 1958, Springfield High School
would play at the park to win their district championship.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Professional
baseball would leave the stadium in 2001 when the Springfield Capitals moved to
Rockford, Illinois. While it has hosted teams from the Frontier League, the
Midwest League, the Pony League, and the American Legion Leagues, the state of
the park and its location make it unsuitable for professional play now. Though
it received a new playing surface in 2006, the stadium has not gone under
renovations since 2001 and the scoreboard is in disrepair. 

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Still, the
stadium is continued to be used. The Springfield Sliders, a collegiate summer
team calls the stadium home. The Benedictine Bulldogs of Benedictine University
also play their games at Robin Roberts. Several annual baseball tournaments are
also held at the stadium, including the State Journal Register Baseball
Classic.

This field has hosted numerous teams over the years including the Springfield Sallies, Browns, Senators, Cardinals, Redbirds, Giants, Sultans, and Capitals. It is currently the home of the Springfield Sliders and the Benedictine University Bulldogs. The stadium was originally constructed in 1925, and had major renovations in 1977. The last renovation of the field was in 2006, and to the stadium was 2001.

Lanphier Ball Park (Robin Roberts Stadium)

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.

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.

Edwards Place

John F. Bretz was born in Kentucky in 1844 to John Bretz, a native of Germany and a brickmaker, and his wife, Jane, who was born in Culpeper, Virginia. The family moved to Springfield in 1857. After finishing school, John F. went to work with - and formed a partnership with - his father. The partnership was dissolved in 1870 when John F. became the inspector of materials for the new State House. John F. Bretz married a woman from Wisconsin, Mary Quaid, in 1866; the couple raised seven children. John F. worked as the City of Springfield supervisor of public streets off and on from the late 1870s to 1890. In 1879, John F. went into business with John White for construction projects; they specialized in street paving with brick and sewer systems. Bretz also owned two brickyards in the town of Springfield. Mary Bretz died in 1881 and John F. remarried a native of Illinois named Maria. John F. Bretz and his son, John E., were business partners as of 1894. In 1900, John F. (age 55) and Maria (45) shared the house at 1113 N. Fifth Street with two of John F.'s children: John E. (31) and Katharine (21). A nephew-in-law, John Saukey (17) and a servant, Katie Gahnen (22) also lived in the home. John F. may have retired from the construction business in 1905; the N. Fifth Street address had been listed as the business address prior to then. John F. moved a few blocks away from the Fifth Street House in 1916 and rented out the Fifth Street home, which is very near railroad tracks. A tenant in 1914 was a teamster named C.E. Van Warner. John F. Bretz passed away in Springfield in 1927 at age 82. The house at 1113 N. Fifth Street is on Lot 10 of Martin Rafter's Addition to the city. The large, two-story brick warehouse abutting an alley at the rear of the house lot seems to have been added in the late 1890s, based on map evidence. The warehouse replaced a slightly smaller wood frame outbuilding identified as a barn on the 1896 Sanborn fire insurance map. Photographs of the house's exterior and an interior view of the parlor appeared in an 1898 book on Springfield's architecture (photos attached). Unlike many of the other buildings depicted in the 1898 book, the John F. Bretz House is not only still standing but is easily recognizable from the circa 120-year-old photograph. Cast iron fencing encloses the small front yard and expansive south yard.

John F. Bretz was a contractor in Springfield in the second half of the nineteenth century and this home at 1113 N. Fifth Street was built for Bretz in 1885 or 1886. The two-story wood-frame house is Queen Anne style with a hipped roof with lower cross gables. The wraparound porch abuts a front-gabled wing facing N. Fifth Street with a filled-in bay window topped by decorative brackets and metalwork. A brick warehouse building at the rear of the lot was used by Bretz to store materials for his profession. The John F. Bretz House is in the Enos Park neighborhood, an area of homes of the well-to-do in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The house and warehouse were listed together on the National Register in 2000 for the house's architecture and the association with the locally prominent builder and his construction business.

John F. Bretz House and Warehouse

George Madoc Brinkerhoff was born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 1839 and was trained as an attorney. He moved to Springfield in 1859 to become a professor at Illinois State University. He and another local lawyer, Abraham Lincoln, were casual acquaintances. While he was admitted to the bar in Illinois, he didn't end up practicing law. During the Civil War, he worked as a disbursing clerk in the office of the Auditor of State. George M. married an Illinois native, Isabella Hawley of Springfield, in 1862. Brinkerhoff soon branched out into multiple businesses as a capitalist; he was one of the founders of the Springfield City Railway Company and the Springfield Iron Company. He hired architect Elijah E. Meyers to design a mansion, which was constructed from 1869 to 1870. The grand Italianate and Gothic style brick mansion featured a four-story tower and two stories of rooms, most of which had their own fireplace. The 15-room mansion contained 4,100 square feet, not counting the basement. The main entrance faced south toward Keys Street, and the original address was 515 Keys Ave.In the 1870 census, George M. (age 31) was listed as a bookkeeper, with extensive real estate holdings worth $65,000 and $10,000 in personal property. He and his wife, Isabella G. (Hawley, 27) shared the house with their children John H. (5) and Marian B. (2). Three of George's brothers also lived in the home: John J. (22, a clerk), David C. (28, a merchant), and Jacob F. (25, a merchant). The last occupant of the mansion was Cornelia Cowgill (22). George M. retired from most of his business pursuits after a health issue in 1886. A curious incident happened with George M. in 1893. He disappeared in July and was found several months later in Toledo, Ohio by his son, who claimed his father's "reason was gone." George M.'s wife Isabella passed away in 1894 at age 51. The 1894 city directory listed the following Brinkerhoffs as living at 515 Keys: Bessie M., Cornelia M., David C., George M Jr., George M. Sr., John H., and Marion B. A large greenhouse was built on the property to the southeast of the house by the 1890s and was enlarged by the 1910s. George M. entered the commercial floristry business by the 1890s. In 1920, an 80-year-old George M. still headed the household. He lived with his three unmarried children: Marian B. (51), George M. Jr. (49), and Bessie (40). George M.'s brother, David C. (78) and a boarder, Mary A. Wineman (51) also shared the home. George M. employed others in his commercial florist business and his brother was a life insurance agent. George M. Jr. had his own real estate broker office, and Bessie was an agricultural department expert at the State House. George lived until 1928. After his death, the mansion was sold to the Ursaline order of Catholic nuns. One year later, the nuns founded Springfield Junior College; the institution later became Springfield College and then Benedictine University.The mansion - nicknamed "The Castle" - served many purposes over the decades including classrooms, administrative offices, dormitory, art school, and a preschool. The aging building was mainly vacant by the 1970s and was in danger of being demolished. The house became a National Register of Historic Places listing, making it eligible for restoration funding; volunteers helped to save the house including much-needed roof repairs. The tower was shortened to three stories. An Ursaline nun named Alice Rosa Lacey wrote a book (The Story of Brinkerhoff Home) in 1995 about the restoration of the Brinkerhoff House in the 1970s and 1980s. Benedictine University closed and put the campus up for sale in 2018, leaving the future of the Brinkerhoff House uncertain once again.

On the former campus of Benedictine University overlooking N. Fifth St. stands the George M. Brinkerhoff House. The grand, Italianate style brick mansion was built in 1869 for the successful businessman and founder of the Springfield City Railway Company and the Springfield Iron Company. George M. later added a huge greenhouse to the property. After his death in 1928, the mansion became part of Springfield Junior College (later Springfield College, and then Benedictine U.). The mansion - nicknamed "The Castle" - served many purposes over the decades including classrooms, administrative offices, dormitory, art school, and a preschool. The aging building was mainly vacant by the 1970s and was in danger of being demolished. The house became a National Register of Historic Places listing in 1978, making it eligible for restoration funding; volunteers helped to save the house including much-needed roof repairs. Benedictine University closed and put the campus up for sale in 2018, leaving the future of the Brinkerhoff House uncertain once again.

George M. Brinkerhoff House

John Rippon, Jr. was a highly successful local businessman and is probably the one who had the house on Third Street built, north of downtown Springfield. A native of England, Rippon was the founder of the Excelsior Foundry and Machine Works in Springfield in 1854. Rippon resided at 700 S. Fourth Street in 1868 according to the city directory, and worked for the firm Berriman and Rippon. Rippon was listed as a machinist on the 1870 census; the 41-year-old resided with his wife, Susan (age 35), and six children ages one to fourteen. Rippon owned a great deal of real estate by 1870, valued at $18,000; his personal property was worth around $10,000. John Rippon Jr. was listed in the 1873 Springfield city directory as living on Third Street between Grand and Eastman avenus, so that places him within this house. The household of John Rippon was listed on Fourth Street in Springfield on the 1880 census, but perhaps the census taker was mistaken since the household was added at the end of the census-taker's list. John and Susan resided with four of their children aged none to twenty-six in 1880. Rippon sold the house on Third Street in 1891 to Gustavus A.H. Wendlant. Wendlant was a local physician who had moved into the house on Third Street by 1887 and was still living there in 1898. Dr. Wendlant's medical office was located elsewhere in town. John Mockler bought the house next and then sold it to Richard "Dick" Kinsella in 1899. Richard F. Kinsella was born in 1865 in Illinois to Irish-born parents. He lived in the Third Street house in 1900 with his wife, Cathryn (30) and their four children ages one to seven. Also in the home lived Kinsella's widowed father, James (75), a servant, Lizzie Ganon (24), and a boarder, Earl McNortey (18). In 1911, Dick Kinsella was the owner of the Three I League baseball team from Springfield. Kinsella also was the chief scout for Johnny McGraw of the New York Nationals in 1911. In late 1911, Kinsella signed with the St. Louis Cardinals as their chief scout but resigned in November 1912. Kinsella had offered the owner of the Cardinals, Mrs. Helen Hathaway Britton, $100,000 in exchange for "renting" the team for a year, claiming he could turn a profit; it seems she said no, and Kinsella quit soon afterwards. Kinsella became a scout for the New York Giants baseball club in early 1913. In 1930, the 64-year-old shared the house on Third St. with his wife, Mary C. (60) and one son, Robert F. (29). Kinsella worked as a contractor doing painting and decorating by 1930; his son, Robert was in partnership with him. The house was valued at $18,000 in 1930. Dick Kinsella died in 1939. The owners at the time the Rippon-Kinsella House was documented for listing on the National Register in the early 1990s were completing additional renovations. The house remains today as a private residence.

The two-story brick home set back from the road at 1317 N. Third Street on a large wooded lot was built around 1871 in an Italianate style with narrow arched windows. Renovations in 1905 in a Classical Revival style added a new roofline to keep up with changing styles. John Rippon, Jr. lived in this house from 1872 to the 1880s. A physician, Gustavus Wendlant, occupied the house by the late 1880s to the late 1890s and bought the home in 1891. Richard "Dick" Kinsella bought the house in 1899 and lived here until he died in 1939. Kinsella was a political boss, local government office holder and a talent scout for professional baseball. The Rippon-Kinsella House was listed in the National Register for its architectural significance in 1992 as an example of a once-common hybrid style of an Italianate house overlaid with Classical Revival elements. 

Rippon-Kinsella House

On exhibit at the AAHM are representations of African American women on U.S. postage stamps and the story of President Barack Obama. Another exhibit describes the history of slavery and the Middle Passage, featuring an audio-visual interactive experience dubbed the "Door of No Return." African-American families who moved to Central Illinois in the 1800s and have local descendants are examined in the Early African American Pioneers exhibit. African American Firsts in Illinois is another current exhibit. A new exhibit in the works is about the oldest African-American churches in Springfield. Ms. Nell Clay was elected president of the museum's board of directors in 2016. In 2020, she still directs the daily operations of the museum, oversees fundraising, builds relationships with businesses, and secures new exhibits. Ms. Clay once was a high school teacher at Springfield High and obtained a masters degree in human resources. After working in education, Ms. Clay became director of civil rights for the Illinois Department of Revenue. She later held the same job title at the state's transportation department before retiring in 2005. Ms. Clay joined the museum's board of directors in 2015. The AAHM closed due to the pandemic in early 2020 and cancelled its exhibit for Women's History month in March. The museum was among the institutions allowed to reopen in June 2020. Plans for reopening had not yet been made by then, however. The museum is mainly operated by volunteers, many of whom are elderly, and the one part-time staff member has been furloughed. The museum is funded by grants and other fundraising efforts, including a fall gala. Ms. Clay continues to update the museum's website in the interim. The museum hosted eight voter registration drives in the summer and fall of 2020. A special exhibit on the National Negro Leagues Baseball was supposed to be on loan in 2020 from the Kansas City Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, but this opening has been delayed until 2021.

The Springfield and Central Illinois African American History Museum (AAHM) is located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, east of the entrance to Oak Ridge Cemetery, at 1440 Monument Avenue. The museum sprang from the Springfield Illinois African American History Foundation, which was incorporated in 2006. The foundation's original goal was the gathering of oral histories to record the accomplishments of African Americans in the Springfield area. The foundation established the museum in February 2012 on Washington Street near the State Capitol. The museum moved to a historic home on the U. of I. Springfield campus in 2014 and then moved to its current spot in 2016. The museum's mission is to tell "our truths clearly, unapologetically, honestly, and in a way that children to seniors will be inspired and hopeful."

Springfield and Central Illinois African American History Museum

The funeral train bearing President Lincoln's coffin also brought the coffin with Willie Lincoln's remains to Springfield. Willie died during the first presidential term at age 11 and his coffin was placed temporarily in the crypt of a family friend in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Edward, the second Lincoln son, died in Springfield in 1850 at age four. Lincoln's body was moved multiple times before the final burial in 1901. When Lincoln's coffin first arrived in Springfield, it was stored within the cemetery's receiving vault until December 1865. The vault is at the base of the hill where the massive monument to President Lincoln was constructed beginning in 1868. The funds for the memorial were donated from across America. Tad Lincoln died in 1871 at age 18 and was the first to be interred in the newly built tomb, in a wall vault. His father and two brothers were moved into the tomb later in 1871. The dedication ceremony in 1874 was attended by Lincoln's former general and the current president, Ulysses S. Grant. There was a plot to steal President Lincoln's remains in 1876 on election day. The plan was to demand $200,000 for the return of the body and the release from prison of a colleague. The plot was foiled by a Secret Service agent who was undercover with the would-be robbers. Mary Todd Lincoln was living with her sister in Springfield when she died in 1882; she was interred in a vault in the wall of the tomb. The federal government donated a number of Civil War cannons that were melted down and cast into the four bronze statues on the exterior, one for each of the four military branchesThe tomb was found to have faults in design and construction and was rebuilt from 1900 to 1901; the obelisk was rebuilt 15 feet higher and reaches 117 feet above the sidewalk. After this first renovation. President Lincoln's remains were moved to below the floor of the burial chamber, where they have safely been since. He was interred ten feet below the floor with thousands of pounds of concrete above. The eldest son, Robert T. Lincoln, was buried in 1926 in Arlington National Cemetery near the nation's capital after a long career in federal government and private enterprise. Changes to the tomb were made again from 1930 to 1931. The interior of the tomb was redesigned to create corridors. Marble and bronze ornamentation and small statues were added. The bronze bust of Lincoln outside the tomb was added during this time as well; the nose is shiny from the tradition of visitors rubbing Lincoln's nose for good luck. One of Robert's children was buried in the tomb but was removed during the 1930 renovations and buried in Arlington Cemetery with his father.  The tomb's interior is accessible, even for those with disabilities. The exterior upper deck is closed to the public.

President Abraham Lincoln is buried in a tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield. Funeral services were held here on May 4th 1865 after the train carrying the slain president's coffin traveled from Washington for two weeks throughout the northeastern and midwestern United States.  Mrs. Lincoln and three of their four sons - Edward, William ("Willie") and Thomas ("Tad") - also are interred in the tomb, which was built in the late 1860s to early 1870s.  The 365-acre Oak Ridge Cemetery is the largest municipal burying ground in Illinois. Lincoln's Tomb became a National Historic Landmark in 1960 and was listed in the National Register in 1966.

Lincoln's Tomb in Oak Ridge Cemetery

The Illinois State Military Museum is located in Springfield, Illinois and houses many exhibits from the states military past.&nbsp; These exhibits follow the Illinois military from it beginnings of the militia to the present day National Guard.&nbsp; It also homes relics from President Lincoln's time in office.The museum has an exhibit housing the artificial leg of Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna that was found by the Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the Battle of Cerro Gordo in the Mexican War.&nbsp; There are also many exhibits of items from the Civil War in the museum, such as an authentically armed and uniformed soldier that is the greeter at the entrance to the Civil War section of the museum.There are also exhibits from The Spanish-American War, WWI, WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War, and the Global&nbsp;War on Terror.It also holds a gift shop for any souvenirs you may want&nbsp;to help you remember your trip to the Illinois State Museum!&nbsp;

The Illinois State Military Museum has many different exhibits from the different eras of the military. It is located in Springfield and is connected with the Illinois National Guard. It shows the history of the Illinois military starting with the early militia on down to the present day National Guard.

Historical Springfield, Illinois driving tour, north part of town

World War II Illinois Veterans Memorial

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Backstory and Context

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