August 2, 2006, Chicago Tribune "Mrs. Lincoln's 'prison'" by Colleen Mastony.
Go to Batavia, Illinois, and there is a building called Bellevue Place apartments. Today people live here by choice if they have enough money, but back in the 1800s, it was an insane asylum for mentally disturbed female patients. In 1875, one First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln was involuntarily committed there by her son Robert.
There is a picture of the building with resident Chris Johnson in front of it. He occupies Apartment 2A where Mary is believed to have stayed.
Descendants of a Lincoln family lawyer were cleaning out an attic in 2005 and found a trunk with 25 old letters,20 written by Mary Lincoln herself and 11 from when she was at Batavia.
AFTER ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S ASSASSINATION
After Lincoln's death, Mary moved to Chicago, first living in the Tremont House, a fancy downtown hotel, then bought a house at 1304 W. Washington Street in Hyde Park that still stands. I guess there would be too many memories to return to her home in Springfield.
Insanity allegations started in 1875 as her behavior became more erratic. Supposedly, she walked around with $56,000 sewed into her petticoat, visited clairvoyants to communicate with the dead, and even reported that someone on a train had tried to put poison in her coffee.
Crazy or Not? You Decide. More to Come. --RoadDog
RoadDog's RoadLog Blog: Being my travels down those great two lane highways of this nation as well as news I learn about them from media sources. Since I'm also very interested in historic preservation, there will be a lot of that as well.
The Shamrock Court Motel in Sullivan, Missouri. It can be yours for $125,000. Lots of possibilities. Actually, now you're too late. Missouri's Roamin' Rich bought it.
2 comments:
1304 W. Washington in Chicago still stands, but
a.) It is in the West Loop neighborhood, not Hyde Park
b.) The City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development Landmarks Division website only indicates that the Groesbeck House at 1304 W. Washington is on what " … was one of the city's most-exclusive residential streets, home to such families as the Cranes, Glessners, and Harrisons, as well as Mary Todd Lincoln, the widow of President Abraham Lincoln," and not that she lived at this specific address.
http://egov.cityofchicago.org/Landmarks/G/GroesbeckHouse.html
Thanks for the corrections. Definitely an interesting and little-known story.
I remember also being told at the Lincoln Home in Springfield, Illinois, that many of the household items of the Lincolns was being stored in Chicago and destroyed in the Chicago Fire.
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