Historic Structure Report: Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Memorial Building

Schedit, Danny

This Historic Structure Report concerns the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Memorial Building. The Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Memorial Building, designed by John Russell Pope, was constructed between 1909 and 1911 by the Lincoln Farm Association. Following donation in 1916, the memorial was managed by the War Department until 1933 and then acquired by the National Park Service in 1933. The park was designated a National Historic Site in 1959. As the 100th anniversary of the Memorial Building approaches, it remains in good condition overall. The present condition of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Building reflects the changes accrued over its ninety-year history. Efforts to regulate the building’s interior environment have yielded solutions which today seem inappropriate. The total effect of these alterations makes for a less appealing experience of the traditional Lincoln birthplace. As one approaches the building, the focal point is no longer the monumental bronze doors but rather the glare of a reflective glass entrance unit. Inside, this rose-tinted glass, along with the stark and unnatural quality of fluorescent light, creates a blur of reflective patterns and obscures the cabin’s relation to the original property. From the Memorial’s specific use of glazing, it is clear that the building was not conceived to block out natural phenomena such as sun and shade, but rather to envelope inside the monument what was once the domestic scene of Lincoln. When entering the Memorial, visitors should not feel that they are in a hermetic environment but, rather, witnessing an isolated moment in time, now bracketed by stone and glass. This report recommends that ultimate treatment for the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Memorial Building be restoration to the 1909-1911 historic period. This period of significance relates to National Park Service thematic studies on the American Public Memorial and the Design and Construction of the Lincoln Birthplace Memorial. To restore the building to this period, the following will be required: 1. Restore skylight and remove wood-framed drop ceiling. Remove non-historic corrugated acrylic panels from historic copper ceiling grid and replace with flat, frosted panels, similar to original glass. 2. Remove non-historic aluminum door systems at both entrances. 3. Remove non-historic solar film from glass. 4. Restore plaster profile on interior walls. 5. Paint plaster interior per historic period 1909 - 1933. 6. Compose and install four marble plaques on north wall, according to guidelines initiated in 1959. 7. Redefine engraved text on exterior granite panels flanking the front (south) entrance. 8. Remove simulated clay floor in cabin and resurface concrete floor per historic period 1909 - 1911. 9. Remove or redesign ranger desk to minimize adverse visual impact to historic interior.

Historic Structure Report: Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Memorial Building

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