Clinton declares Lincoln summer retreat a national monument

July 7, 2000
Web posted at: 5:46 p.m. EDT (2146 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton on Friday declared the summer cottage where Abraham Lincoln penned the first drafts of the Emancipation Proclamation as a national monument and announced new federal grants to preserve historic sites across the United States.

President Clinton announced Friday new federal grants to preserve historic sites in the United States.

"Not enough Americans know about Anderson Cottage and the truly historic role it has played in our nation's history," Clinton told a crowd gathered on the front lawn of the 157-year-old house in Washington. "We come to understand our heroes not only through their words and deeds, but by their homes, the quiet places they created for themselves."

Under Clinton's proclamation, Anderson Cottage and the surrounding 2.1 acres will be designated as the President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National Monument. The grounds include a large copper beech tree under which Lincoln often read or relaxed.

"It is still very much alive, standing proudly," Clinton said. "Because it is three centuries old, it is our last living link to President Lincoln."

The cottage, on the grounds of a military retirement community in northwest Washington, was a place Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd often used in the summer months. The 14-room stucco cottage, built in an Early Gothic Revival architectural style, was preferred over the often stifling heat and humidity of the White House.

"It was, in part, summer days like this one that drew the Lincolns here to higher ground, where the breeze blows more and the visitors can breathe a little easier," Clinton said. " It was quieter here and a place to reflect."

Lincoln, who often completed the three-mile trek from the White House on horseback, spent about a quarter of his presidency at Anderson cottage. He drafted the Emancipation Proclamation -- which ultimately freed slaves in the Confederate states and provided a moral impetus to the Civil War -- at the cottage in September 1862, and last visited it the day before his assassination in April 1865.

"Lincoln came to this cottage not to hide from the war, but to confront its deepest meanings, to plumb its most difficult truths, to find the solace necessary to muster the strength and resolve to go on," Clinton said. "You can still find that spirit strongly in the room in this cottage where he worked."

Clinton also announced $750,000 in a federal grant to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which will match the amount in private funds to help restore and preserve the site.

The grant, along with others designated to restore 71 historic sites across the country, were awarded Friday by Save America's Treasures, a partnership between the White House Millennium Council, the National Park Service, and the National Trust.

Cottage a favorite of 19th century presidents

Constructed as the home of George W. Riggs Jr. in 1842 and purchased by the government in 1851, the house was also used as a summer retreat for at least five other presidents including James Buchanan, Ulysses S. Grant, and Rutherford B. Hayes.

It was purchased to serve as the headquarters of what was then called the U.S. Soldiers' Home, a 320-acre campus to provide shelter for disabled war veterans. The house was later named after Major Robert Anderson, the Union officer who defended Fort Sumter during the outbreak of the Civil War.

Today, the grounds are known as the Armed Services Retirement Home.

The cottage was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973 for being the first of its kind to house disabled or retired U.S. soldiers. But humidity and years of use as an office have taken its toll on the building.

"The retirement home has been as good a steward as it could be ... but it now really needs to be restored," one White House official said.

Custodians of the building say that leaking radiator pipes from the 100-year old heating system are damaging floors and interior woodwork. The federal grant also will be used to upgrade the electrical cooling systems, and to fully restore the home to how it appeared Lincoln's day. Restoration is expected to take three to five years.

The Armed Forces Retirement Home will continue to manage the site, in consultation with the National Park Service, White House officials said.

CNN's Bob Franken and Reuters contributed to this report.