Springfield Embiggened

Historic Springfield
Springfield began its life as Calhoun in the 1820s, named for John C. Calhoun, one of the most prominent politicians and political theorists of his day. He served in almost every political office up to and including the Vice Presidency. Calhoun's defenses of slavery and nullification provided a philosophical foundation for the eventual secession of his home state South Carolina. Swell guy.

Enough of Calhoun: by the 1830s nobody liked him anymore so they changed the name of the city to Springfield after Springfield, Massachusetts. Everyone in the US revered Springfield, Massachusetts as a center of cutting edge technology, booming industry, and prosperity. Think: the Silicon Valley of the 1830s. Springfield, Illinois came into its own during the Civil War as a major training center for Illinois troops.

Cool things about Springfield:

• The Donner party started out in Springfield. They ended up in each other's bellies.
• The corndog was invented in Springfield.
• Springfield had the first drive-through restaurant in the US.
• For a time, Adlai Stevenson lived here.

Springfield Churches
Springfield is a beautiful town. My only complaint is that they have too many interesting things to see in a single day trip. I find this slightly offensive. A little planning and careful culling of historic sites would have made the city a bit more hospitable. This time around, I wanted to get some pictures of historic churches. Springfield has its fair share.

Grace Lutheran Church, built sometime in the 1890s. Let me tell you about finding information on buildings from the 1890s in Illinois. Illinois has so many historic buildings dating from the decades between the 1830s and 1860s, that by the time you get to the 1890s and early 1900s, they don't even care any more. So information about churches from the late 1800s is spotty at best.

Where was I? Grace Lutheran Church. An online source claims this building represents Romanesque Revival style.

Here's how you know Romanesque Revival:

• Round arches in doorways and windows.
• Belt courses (basically a row of bricks that stands out from the rest of the wall).
• Pyramidal spires.

Now look at the picture:

Nothing about this building looks Romanesque to me. The Internet lied. It should be sent to bed without dinner. I think we're looking at another Gothic Revival church.

Gothic Revival elements:

• Pointed arches.
• Traceries in the windows (stonework lines in the stained glass).
• Clover-shaped windows.
• Asymmetrical floor plan.
• Gargoyles (The gargoyle is the trump card. The First United Methodist Church in Champaign has Tudor arches. But it also has gargoyles. So Gothic.)

See what I'm talking about? I did find one interesting tidbit about Grace Lutheran. The steeple is made completely from cut stone.

I also need to mention why we even have architectural styles. This will facilitate any future discussions about old buildings. Any architectural or artistic style exists merely to flip the bird to the preceeding style. Artists are a snotty bunch. Neoclassical (aka Greek Revival) reigned as the predominant style  through the end of the 1700s and early 1800s. It was the radical style of the day, representing rationalism and republicanism. Neoclassical (Greek Revival) buildings are all very symmetrical. Think: the White House, the US Capitol, Monticello, the Fithian Home. Gothic Revival (popular in the mid-1800s) came around to give Greek Revival the what for. While Gothic Revival relies on asymmetry, it represents more traditional and spiritual ideas.

That's your architecture lesson for today. Let's look at some cool stuff.

First Christian Church, built in 1911, looks obviously Gothic Revival. See the pointed arches? The traceries in the windows? The architect intended this church to resemble Melrose Abbey in Scotland. The brick building in the right of the photograph is a Masonic Temple, but I couldn't get a good picture of it.

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church dates back to 1888. Also Gothic Revival. See the asymmetrical floor plan? The traceries in the windows?

On the Subject of Capitols (Also, Capitals)

One of the highlights of our trip was the 6th capitol in the 3rd capital of Illinois. What's this nonsense? Capitol with an O is always a building; capital with an A is always a city. But here's why. In ancient Rome, the Capitoline Hill dominated the city and housed the most important religious building in the Roman world (the Temple of Jupiter). When our Founding Fathers laid out the plans for Washington DC, they thought they were being clever by naming the hill on which our most important government building sat the Capitol Hill. Europeans, by the way, found this offensive. Soon, we began calling the building The Capitol and the name eventually oozed out to state capitol buildings as well. That's your ancient history lesson of the day.

The early settlers of Illinois Territory placed their first government in Kaskaskia in a dumpy little building (capital #1, capitol #1) they rented for four dollars a day (this was around 1809). Illinois became a state in 1819 and Illinoyances moved their capital to Vandalia (capital #2, capitol #2), a more centrally located city. The building in Kaskaskia burned down. Then the Mississippi River swallowed the town whole.

The Vandals soon tired of their government building, so they tore it down and built another (capitol #3). When a young upstart named Abe Lincoln started advocating moving the capital to Springfield, the Vandals built yet another (capitol #4), even fancier than the previous three. It didn't do them any good, though, the rest of Illinois liked the idea of a capital in Springfield.

So the seat of state government moved to this Neoclassical (Greek Revival) building (capital #3, capitol #5) in the 1830s:

In this building, Lincoln argued before the Illinois Supreme Court, served as state legislator, debated with Stephen Douglas, and gave his famous House Divided speech.

The current capitol (capitol #6) began construction in 1869 and took twenty years to complete. It's the tallest non-skyscraper capitol in the US (Nebraska, Louisiana, and Florida have art deco skyscapers), taller than the US Capitol in DC and, it pains me to say, taller than the Texas Capitol in Austin.

Here's a picture of me with Lincoln #6 in front of the Illinois State Capitol.

Notice the symmetry, the pediment, and the columns? If you guessed this is Neoclassical or Greek Revival, you get ten points.

Stephen Douglas, called the Little Giant, stood only four inches over five feet. One of the most powerful antebellum political figures, he served as US Congressman, US Senator, and ran against Lincoln in the 1860 presidential elections (the first showdown between a Republican and a Democrat). He also briefly dated Mary Todd before Lincoln latched on to her. She looked a bit like a soggy pumpkin, but she had gobs of money, which is attractive to aspiring powermongers like Douglas and Lincoln. After the 1860 elections, Douglas sort of fades from history. I found out why: he died of typhoid fever in the summer of 1861.

Union Station

Union Station, across the street from the Lincoln Presidential Library, opened for business in January of 1898 and operated continuously until April 1971.

See the rounded arches? That's right. We finally have a Romanesque Revival building.

Two Lincoln statues have a home in the park next to Union Station. We got one (Lincoln #7), but didn't see the other until we were driving away. I felt robbed.

In the foreground of the picture, you can see the Acts of Intolerance sculpture. Designed to look like two burned out chimneys rising from rubble, this commemorates the Springfield Race Riot of 1908. County officials transferred two black prisoners out of the county jail and an enraged lynch mob of whites rioted, burning black-owned homes and businesses. By the end of the night, 40 homes and 24 businesses lay in ruins, $200 thousand worth of damage ($5 million in today's dollars).

The Springfield riot sparked concern over the growing racial tensions in the US, so three prominent civil rights activists met in New York City later that year. They formed the NAACP.

Oak Ridge Cemetery

Our penultimate stop of the day, Oak Ridge Cemetery, is the final resting place of Honest Abe and Mary Todd. The sprawling cemetery had a number of interesting memorials.

This one looked a little like a Flintstones version of a Doric temple to me.

The name on the outside says Warner and there was a plaque explaining who he was, but I didn't write it down and forgot what it said. It was late in the day. We were tired and hungry. And grouchy. Aine was more grouchy.

The interior had a bust above the burial spot and it looks like people had thrown coins in for good luck.

The inside of the dome looked like an ancient Greek tholos (beehive) tomb.

In the middle of the cemetery, we found a Masonic Memorial. A pedestal with an open Bible sporting a compass and square stood in the middle and in three of the four cardinal directions (east, west, and south) stood a stone chair. Due north of the central pedestal (you can sort of see it in the background of the picture) stood another pedestal with a bronze Bible.

Of course, as with all things Masonic, online information about this memorial doesn't exist.

The far western end of the cemetery has been devoted to three war memorials for World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.

Almost 1,800 Illinoisans died in Korea. This memorial, built in 1996, features a twelve foot bronze bell that chimes at regular intervals. Around it, stand four figures, one for each of the four branches of the military.

It has an inscription for each of the branches. Here's the US Army inscription:

Near it stands a stele memorializing the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, a battle fought in the winter of 1950, the first between US and Chinese troops.

Illinois lost around 3,000 troops, either killed or missing in action, in Vietnam. This memorial, built in 1988, features five radiating walls (one for each of the branches of military that served in Vietnam) around an eternal flame.

Here's the seal on the Air Force wall:

Horseshoe!

Harrison, the theoretical physicist, said if went to Springfield, we had to eat a Horseshoe Sandwich. Invented in Springfield, this thing is the signature entree of Illinois cuisine, less well known, but more highly esteemed (at least locally) than the Chicago-style Deep Dish Pizza.

And the only place to get a Horseshoe, is D'Arcy's Pint, an Irish Pub on the edge of town. Don't ask me why they need so many apostrophes in a two syllable name.

The Horseshoe Sandwich consists of a large piece of Texas Toast, topped with a hamburger patty, topped with a pile of french fries, topped with something they alleged was cheese sauce.

I finished it. Well, most of it. And felt sick for the rest of the day. But I'd do it again. Horseshoe!

Here's your parting shot: