The Abraham Lincoln Memorial Garden, commonly known and referred to as the Lincoln Memorial Garden, is a self-governing 100-acre (0.4 km) woodland and prairie garden owned by the city of

Springfield, Illinois Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest ...

, and managed by the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Garden Foundation. The gardens are made up of two major units, the Jensen section bordering

Lake Springfield Lake Springfield is a reservoir on the southeast edge of the city of Springfield, Illinois. It is above sea level. The lake was formed in 1931–1935 by building Spaulding Dam across Sugar Creek, a tributary of the Sangamon River. The lake wa ...

, and the newer Ostermeier Prairie Center section. There are also of additional buffer properties. As of April 2006, the Garden is maintained by a full-time staff of four, supplemented by more than 150 volunteers and

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...

History

Lincoln Memorial Garden (LMG) is the inspiration of Springfield Civic Garden Club leader Harriet Knudson. When Knudson learned that the city of Springfield was acquiring land for the basin of a new reservoir, intended to serve as a source of city drinking water, she asked the city to set aside approximately 0.6 miles (1 km) of future shoreline as a garden to memorialize

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...

. The city agreed and leased the Jensen section to Lincoln Memorial Garden in perpetuity. At the time of the lease, the future Garden site was cultivated farmland that contained approximately 12 trees. As designer of the new garden, LMG selected Jens Jensen. A follower of the

Prairie Style Prairie School is a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped ...

and its ideal of "organic architecture," Jensen designed the garden to reflect an idealized vision of the Midwestern woods and prairies. In his 1935 design, Jensen placed eight council rings, his design icon, throughout the Garden. These fire circles, built of Midwestern splitstone, are designed for groups of 12–50 people to sit together around an open fire. Most of the fire circles are situated to give all participants a view of Lake Springfield. By sitting in a fire circle, visitors have the opportunity to balance the

four elements Classical elements typically refer to earth, water, air, fire, and (later) aether which were proposed to explain the nature and complexity of all matter in terms of simpler substances. Ancient cultures in Greece, Tibet, and India had simi ...

within themselves. In 1936, the task of planting the Garden began. The Jensen plan called for 28 species of canopy trees, 14 species of intermediate-sized trees, 23 varieties of shrubs, and 11 varieties of

wildflower A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows in the wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. The term implies that the plant probably is neither a hybrid nor a selected cultivar that is in any way different from the ...

s. All of these species are native to

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

, and

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

, Lincoln's three native states; Jensen was one of the first U.S. landscape gardeners to eschew the use of exotic plants. Construction of the Garden was helped by donations from the family of drugstore CEO

Charles Walgreen Charles Rudolph Walgreen Sr. (October 9, 1873 – December 11, 1939) was an American businessman who founded Walgreens. Background He was born in Dixon, Illinois, before moving to Galesburg, Illinois, at a young age. He was the son of Swedis ...

. The Garden was dedicated in 1939. In 1965, the LMG constructed a Nature Center within the Jensen Unit. In 1992, the Jensen Unit was added to the U.S.

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

as an example of Jensen's mature landscape design. In 1995, the Ostermeier Prairie Center was added to the Garden. The Ostermeier Unit contains approximately of Illinois

tallgrass prairie The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. Historically, natural and anthropogenic fire, as well as grazing by large mammals (primarily bison) provided periodic disturbances to these ecosystems, limiting the encroachm ...

under restoration.

Recreation and activities

Lincoln Memorial Garden maintains approximately five miles (8 km) of footpaths. Plantings within the Jensen Unit include the

white oak The genus ''Quercus'' contains about 500 species, some of which are listed here. The genus, as is the case with many large genera, is divided into subgenera and sections. Traditionally, the genus ''Quercus'' was divided into the two subgenera ''C ...

(the Illinois state tree), the

sugar maple ''Acer saccharum'', the sugar maple, is a species of flowering plant in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is native to the hardwood forests of eastern Canada and eastern United States. Sugar maple is best known for being the prim ...

, the

dogwood ''Cornus'' is a genus of about 30–60 species of woody plants in the family Cornaceae, commonly known as dogwoods, which can generally be distinguished by their blossoms, berries, and distinctive bark. Most are deciduous trees or ...

, and the

redbud ''Cercis'' is a genus of about 10 species in the subfamily Cercidoideae of the pea family Fabaceae, native to warm temperate regions. It contains small deciduous trees or large shrubs commonly known as redbuds. They are characterised by simpl ...

. Plantings within the Ostermeier Prairie Center include prairie grasses such as

big bluestem ''Andropogon gerardi'', commonly known as big bluestem, is a species of tall grass native to much of the Great Plains and grassland regions of central and eastern North America. It is also known as tall bluestem, bluejoint, and turkeyfoot. Taxon ...

, with some fire-resistant tree specimens such as bur oak. In early spring, LMG operates one of the southernmost

maple syrup Maple syrup is a syrup made from the sap of maple trees. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in late winter and early spring. Maple tr ...

festivals in Illinois. The LMG maples yield only about 10–15 gallons of dark syrup in a good year. In October, an

Indian Summer An Indian summer is a period of unseasonably warm, dry weather that sometimes occurs in autumn in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Several sources describe a true Indian summer as not occurring until after the first frost, or more s ...

Festival celebrates the turning of the leaves. The garden maintains a nature center and gift store.

References

External links

Abraham Lincoln Memorial Garden and Nature Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lincoln Memorial Garden, Abraham Buildings and structures completed in 1936 Gardens in Illinois National Register of Historic Places in Springfield, Illinois Nature centers in Illinois Prairie School architecture in Illinois Springfield, Illinois Tourist attractions in Springfield, Illinois Protected areas of Sangamon County, Illinois Monuments and memorials in Illinois Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois 1936 establishments in Illinois Monuments and memorials to Abraham Lincoln in the United States

History

Recreation and activities

See also

References

External links