Mary Todd Lincoln House at 578 West Main Street in Lexington, Kentucky, USA, was the girlhood home of Mary Todd, the future first lady and wife of the 16th President, Abraham Lincoln.Today the fourteen-room house is a museum containing period furniture, portraits, and artifacts from the Todd and Lincoln families. Hour-long guided tours introduce visitors to the complex life of Mary Todd Lincoln, from her refined upbringing in a wealthy, slave-holding family to her reclusive years as a mourning widow.[2]
The house was built c. 1803–1806 as an inn and tavern, which was called "The Sign of the Green Tree" before its purchased by the Todd family. The family moved into the three-story home in 1832. Mary Todd lived in this home until 1839, when she moved to Springfield, Illinois. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln visited her family here.
Contents
1Historic status
2Museum
3Unusual history
4See also
5References
6External links
Historic status
The Mary Todd Lincoln house has the distinction of being the first historic site restored in honor of a First Lady.[3] Operated by the Kentucky Mansions Preservation Foundation, Inc., the house museum was opened to the public on June 9, 1977.
Museum
In the mid-1970s, Beula C. Nunn, wife of Governor Louie B. Nunn, along with the Kentucky Mansions Preservation Foundation, Inc., and the Metropolitan Women's Club of Lexington, gained support to preserve and restore the Mary Todd Lincoln House. In June 1996, the Beula C. Nunn Garden at the Mary Todd Lincoln House was dedicated and opened to the public. Today the enclosed gardens contain trees, plants, herbs and shrubs that represent what may have been in the gardens at the Todd home in the early nineteenth century.
The property is open to the public as a historic house museum.[4]
Unusual history
Belle Brezing was a working girl in a bawdy house, run by Jenny Hill, located in this building starting in 1879.[5] Later she became a madam in her own right, with her own brothel. Brezing is widely credited as having inspired Margaret Mitchell's character of Belle Watling in her novel, Gone With The Wind (1936).[6]
See also
Lexington in the American Civil War
References
^National Park Service (July 9, 2010). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. Retrieved June 21, 2016.
^www.mtlhouse.org
^"Mary Todd Lincoln House". National Park Service. Retrieved June 21, 2016.
^"Mary Todd Lincoln House". Kentucky Mansion Preservation Foundation. Retrieved June 21, 2016.
^"Belle Brezing". Archived from the original on June 12, 2009. Retrieved June 20, 2008.
^Wilson, Amy (April 9, 2008). "Brezing vs. Watling: The Belle connection". Lexington Herald Leader. Archived from the original on June 13, 2008. Retrieved June 20, 2008.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mary Todd Lincoln House.
Official website
National Park Service Page on the House
v
t
e
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Topics
Architectural style categories
Contributing property
Historic district
History of the National Register of Historic Places
Keeper of the Register
National Park Service
Property types
Lists by states
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Lists by insular areas
American Samoa
Guam
Minor Outlying Islands
Northern Mariana Islands
Puerto Rico
Virgin Islands
Lists by associated states
Federated States of Micronesia
Marshall Islands
Palau
Other areas
District of Columbia
Morocco
Portal
v
t
e
Museums in Kentucky
Art
Kentucky Folk Art Center
KMAC Museum
Museum of the American Quilter's Society
Speed Art Museum
University of Kentucky Art Museum
Aviation
Aviation Museum of Kentucky
Biographical
Bill Monroe Museum
General George Patton Museum of Leadership
Muhammad Ali Center
Rosemary Clooney Museum
U.S. 23 Country Music Highway Museum
Whitney Young Birthplace and Museum
History
Adsmore
Ashland
Bardstown Historical Museum
Barthell Coal Mining Camp
Big Sandy Heritage Center
Blue Heron Coal Mining Camp
Bluegrass Heritage Museum
Civil War Museum
Coal Miners' Museum
David A. Zegeer Coal-Railroad Museum
Don F. Pratt Memorial Museum
Federal Hill
F.M. Stafford House
Frazier History Museum
Harland Sanders Café and Museum
Highlands Museum and Discovery Center
Historic Locust Grove
Hunt-Morgan House
James A. Ramage Civil War Museum
Jeffersontown Historical Museum
Kentucky Coal Mining Museum
Lexington History Center
Magoffin County Pioneer Village and Museum
Mary Todd Lincoln House
McCreary County Museum
Mountain Homeplace
Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History
Portland Museum
Riverside, The Farnsley-Moremen Landing
Samuel May House
Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History
Thomas Edison House
Rail
Bluegrass Railroad and Museum
Elkhorn City Railroad Museum
The Historic Railpark and Train Museum
Kentucky Railway Museum
Railway Museum of Greater Cincinnati
Religious
Creation Museum
Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill
Shaker Museum at South Union
Science & technology
East Kentucky Science Center
Kentucky Science Center
Kentucky River Museum
National Corvette Museum
Sports
Kentucky Derby Museum
Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory
Miscellaneous
Callahan Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind