Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Historic Resource Study

NATIONAL PARK DEVELOPMENT, 1916-1935

The bill placed the memorial building, log cabin, and grounds under the authority of the Secretary of War. The secretary determined that a nonresident commissioner and a resident custodian should be appointed to administer the national park. Richard Lloyd Jones volunteered to serve as commissioner, and the government paid him a nominal annual salary of $100. John A. Cissell, a grandson of John Creal, continued his previous service as custodian for the LFA, begun in 1910, under the War Department. Cissell later served as the first park superintendent under the National Park Service. [59]

Cissell and his assistant, W. G. Ragsdale, resided on the farm and cultivated part of the farm acreage, approximately ten acres, in bluegrass and tobacco. Jones, as commissioner, did not visit the site often and made few recommendations for repair and upkeep. By 1926, the park showed signs of neglect, and the Secretary of War determined that the Quartermaster General in Jeffersonville, Indiana, should assume more control over park maintenance. Although Jones kept an advisory position, he no longer acted as commissioner. [60]

As a first course of action, the War Department determined that the annual spring flooding of the plaza and spring needed immediate attention. The flooding deposited a layer of mud and debris on the unpaved plaza that also served as a parking area. Visitors often parked around the flagpole in the court to limit their exposure to the soggy ground. This frequent inundation doubly impacted the visitor because the road connecting the highway and the plaza was not paved. Between 1911 and 1916, the LFA performed few, if any, improvements on the property. Under Richard Lloyd Jones's administration, it also is apparent that no investments in the site were made. After years of neglect, the War Department decided to act in 1928. [61]

The War Department inherited a designed landscape, as well as a memorial building. Pope's plans included the Memorial Building on the knoll and a descending granite stair with pea gravel landings. Pope also included a gravel plaza, approximately seventy feet in diameter, with a central flagpole on axis with the stairs and the Memorial Building [62] At the 1911 dedication, the landscape consisted of stepped grass panels outlined by low hedges with an additional line of hedges that flanked the stairs. A row of Lombardy poplars lay outside each hedged rectangle. At the foot of the stairs lay a grassed plaza that roughly followed the rectangular shape of the basin. A flagpole graced the center of the plaza. [63] The Sinking Spring, located just west of the stairs, remained in its natural state, and the remaining grounds were grassed, wooded, or under cultivation. Visitors entered the court from the south and the east. Four pink granite markers, two incised with "Lincoln Birthplace Memorial," marked the unpaved entrance road. [64]

Figure 19: This photograph shows the Sinking Spring as it appeared prior to War Department modification (circa 1890s).

In the fiscal year 1928-29, the War Department allocated $5,000 to improve the unpaved approach road, create parking facilities, and provide some measure of flood control. The Engineering Division of the War Department drew plans for widening and paving the existing "old Telford Road." President Herbert Hoover approved on February 14, 1929, more congressional appropriations for repairs and improvement. By June 1929, the War Department had spent approximately $4,000 to replace the deteriorating split-rail fencing and construct the stone steps and retaining walls that form the spring entrance. The War Department erected rail fencing along the west side of U.S. 31E, along the approach road, and around the plaza. [65]

By the close of 1930, the War Department had changed the site through a rigorous construction campaign. It had completed a well system to pump fresh water, including two stone pump houses. To alleviate the flooding problems, the Engineering Division constructed a stone and concrete dam and drain to catch and carry away the excess water that inundated the basin. The War Department also constructed a log comfort station with a terra cotta pipe leaching field, a picnic pavilion, and over 1,000 feet of limestone walkways to improve sanitation problems and visitor circulation. Two sets of granite steps, located on the northeast and southwest facades of the Memorial Building, provided access to the new comfort station, picnic pavilion, and back down to the plaza area. Flagstone paths east and west of the Memorial Building linked the parking area, visitor facilities, the plaza, and the Memorial Building. A stone, three-bay garage, located northeast of the Memorial Building between the pump houses, completed the maintenance facility. Finally, miscellaneous shrubbery was planted along the new paths and around the newly formalized plaza area. [66]

The access road, paved with rock asphalt, consisted of an approximately 1280 foot long drive terminating at an elliptical parking loop approximately 230 feet in diameter. The approach road apparently had little natural vegetation and may have been planted. A stair, consisting of two flights of terraced limestone steps, linked the parking ellipse with the east end of the plaza via a flagstone path. Visitors now approached the Memorial Building from the east via a paved road and flagstone paths.

Figure 20: Memorial Building plaza and steps, 1938

Figure 21: The Sinking Spring, 1938. Note the extensive stonework and paving added by the War Department.

The basin area incurred the greatest change during the War Department administration. Visitors once entered, generally by car, a grassed basin with a central flagpole that served as both court and parking area. By 1913, gravel covered the court surface and a small circle of grass remained around the flagpole. The War Department formalized the court into a rectangular, flagstone-lined plaza enclosed with waist-high hedges and intended for pedestrians. Cars remained on the parking ellipse. The plaza, completed in 1929, measures approximately two hundred by eighty feet and is oriented on a northeast to southwest axis. Flagstone paths transected the plaza on parallel and perpendicular axes to the Memorial Building. A limestone bench and wall occupied the southeast plaza boundary, and a limestone wall, presumably the dam, formed the southwest plaza boundary in front of the Boundary Oak. The flagpole, surrounded by flagstone paths and a grassed court, occupied the center of the plaza. Limestone benches, formerly located in the open court, were relocated to the landings of the Memorial Building staircase and around the building itself. [67]

The two-story log house, located in a thicket west of U.S. 31E, known as the Old Creal House, remained vacant and in deteriorating condition throughout the War Department tenure. [68]

In 1933, the National Park Service (NPS) assumed responsibility for the Abraham Lincoln National Park from the War Department. Between 1930 and the end of World War II, few improvements or alterations to the Memorial Building and grounds occurred. The NPS inherited a landscape greatly altered from what it perceived as the original design intent of Pope and the LEA. NPS Historian Roy Appleman, upon visiting the site in March 1938, criticized the park's deteriorated condition and overly formal landscaping. The grounds have "too many flagstone and concrete walks, courts, and unnecessary and undesirable buildings." [69]

In 1935, the NPS initiated one of several planting plans. The 1935 landscape work, performed by Public Works Administration laborers between March and June, intended to retain the alterations the War Department had made. The plan called for replacing dying vegetation and elements, such as the poplars, long since removed by the War Department. The NPS also created vegetative screens along the park's southern boundary. [70] Tourist attractions, both on U.S. 3 1E and within sight of the Memorial Building at the Nancy Lincoln Inn, significantly detracted from the site's solemnity. The NPS attempted to visually shield the Memorial Building and plaza from the inn through vegetation, mostly red cedars.

Within the Memorial Building, the reconstructed cabin displayed years of abuse through its unevenly sawn-off log ends, irregular notching, and large gaps in the log walls. A remnant of a flag pole, installed by Dennett and Bigham, remained in the concrete floor of the cabin. The door and window frames were made of sawn lumber and fastened with machine-made nails. Finally, marble plaques addressing the history of the farm and Lincoln's parents contained numerous inaccuracies. [71]

The NPS did not immediately rectify all the problems associated with the Site, particularly those that related to historical accuracy. However, the NPS immediately replaced the concrete cabin floor with a dirt floor and removed the flagpole. The agency also fitted the window and door frames with hand-hewn boards and peg fasteners. The marble plaques were plastered and painted until further study could amend their texts. [72]

The NPS determined that an accurate boundary survey and historic documentation of the Site should be completed first. Historian Benjamin Davis transferred to the park from Mammoth Cave National Park in January 1947 and proceeded to research the origins of the farm, aided by Melvin Weig of Morristown National Historical Park, and to revise the park's interpretive pamphlet. Davis prepared the "Report on the Original Thomas Lincoln Nolin Creek Farm, Based on Court Records" in July 1948. Davis concluded that the park's 110 acres had been part of the original Thomas Lincoln farm. 1 October 1948, Roy Hays, an insurance investigator, published an article entitled "Is the Lincoln Birthplace Cabin Authentic?" Davis submitted documentation that addressed Hays', Louis Warren's, the Lincoln Farm Association's, and his own primary research and concluded that the Rodman tradition was without foundation. [73]

Figure 22: Traditional Birthplace Cabin, 1938

Subsequent alterations to park buildings and grounds by the NPS changed some historic fabric associated with the Memorial Building and its grounds, but the feeling and association of the site remained undisturbed. The memorial landscape, consisting of hedges and tall trees flanking the staircase, although replanted, remained intact. In 1941, the NPS razed the log Creal House.

A new sign, reflecting time renamed park, Abraham Lincoln National Historical Park, graced the main entrance some time after 1939. The park also purchased six acres associated with the Boundary Oak, considered a significant Lincoln-era landmark.

Figure 23: The Boundary Oak, 1938

In 1959, the park constructed a visitor center on the north side of the parking ellipse, eliminating most of the parking on this portion of the loop. In the same year, the park demolished the picnic pavilion and log comfort station and built two new residences. [74]

The Lincoln Farm Association, the War Department, and the National Park Service accomplished numerous changes at the Sinking Spring Farm from 1909 to 1959. These agencies transformed a few acres of rolling farm country of central Kentucky into a formal secular shrine complete with a classical temple and a carefully manicured landscape.