Hildene, the Robert Todd Lincoln home in Manchester, Vermont

lupaglupa

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@Gary Morgan , @NH Civil War Gal, and I met up in Manchester, Vermont to tour the summer home of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln's only surviving child, Robert Todd Lincoln. Hildene, as the house is known, was built as a summer home by Robert in 1905. By the Robert had had a successful career as a lawyer and as president of the Pullman company. He had his wife Mary had three children and four grandchildren whom they frequently hosted.
 
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Robert had first come to the southwestern corner of Vermont in 1863. Mary Todd Lincoln brought her children to the Equinox Hotel, a large and lovely in Manchester Center, to escape the heat of Washington, DC. The family liked Vermont so well that they returned the following summer and would have been at the Equinox again in 1865 if President Lincoln had not been assassinated. Robert's fond memories of Vermont inspired him to purchase the land needed for the Hildene estate and it's attached farm.
 
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Docents in the house share the story of the Lincoln family. Robert and Mary Harlan Lincoln married in 1868. She survived him, dying in 1937.

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Robert and Mary had three children, one of whom (Abraham, nicknamed Jack) died at age 17. Oldest daughter Mary had one child; younger daughter Jessie had two children. None of the grandchildren had children. Jessie's daughter Peggy Beckwith was the last family member to live at Hildene. When she died in 1975 she left the house and it's contents to the Christian Scientist church. Unable to maintain the site as a Lincoln memorial, per Beckwith's wishes, the church planned to sell Hildene for development. A community group formed to save the property and the resulting foundation still runs Hildene today.
 
Thank you for this, wonderful pictures. Do you know what the younger Abraham Lincoln (Jack) died from?
I believe they said it was because he had developed some boils under his arm, they lanced them, they became infected, and the resulting infection killed him.

When you count your blessings, be sure to include antibiotics!
 
Thanks so much for sharing these photos! We visited Hildene back in the 1980s when we were still living in Brattleboro. A beautiful and fascinating place!

R
You lived in Brattleboro? That makes us practically neighbors! The family I share the house with does all of their grocery shopping in Brattleboro, but since I work in the opposite direction, I do mine on this side of the border.
 
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Robert had first come to the southwestern corner of Vermont in 1863. Mary Todd Lincoln brought her children to the Equinox Hotel, a large and lovely in Manchester Center, to escape the heat of Washington, DC. The family liked Vermont so well that they returned the following summer and would have been at the Equinox again in 1865 if President Lincoln had not been assassinated. Robert's fond memories of Vermont inspired him to purchase the land needed for the Hildene estate and it's attached farm.
You know, this is a better photo of the house than the one on the post card I bought at the gift shop...
 
You lived in Brattleboro? That makes us practically neighbors! The family I share the house with does all of their grocery shopping in Brattleboro, but since I work in the opposite direction, I do mine on this side of the border.
Oh yes, I remember your mentioning you lived in that area -- Bernardston or Greenfield or Deerfield maybe? We were living in Guilford when we first got married, then moved to Brattleboro when one of the kids got very sick. We're in NC now, but that area up there still feels like home!

ARB
 
I'm not quite the photographer @lupaglupa is, but here I go, anyway.



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The guest bedroom. The gardens are very impressive, and there were fresh flowers in most of the rooms that are open to the public.

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The little nook on the landing of the stairs looks like a cozy place to curl up and read, but there are actually 500 pipes in each of the enclosures on the sides that are hooked up to Mrs Lincoln's pipe organ!

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A view of the gardens from an upstairs window.

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The small patch on the front lawn bears a sign that says it shows the dimensions of the cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born. God Bless America!
 
Round 2...

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The Secretaries' office. We were divided as to whether this was a brilliant system of organization or a hopelessly confusing one.

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The butler's pantry. Other than this room, surprisingly little was said about the servants.

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The grandchildren's bedroom. We were told that the house boasted eight bedrooms AND eight bathrooms, and it included heat and hot water! They moved into the house around 1906.

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The back door that leads to the garden. It's exactly opposite the front door, which creates a nice cross breeze.
 
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