{"nrhp_refnum":"92001016","name":"Lincoln, Abraham, Memorial Garden","other_names":["Lincoln Memorial Garden and Nature Center"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"2301 E. Lake Dr.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Springfield","county":"Sangamon County","state":"IL","lat":39.70665858850006,"lon":-89.59986303683084,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1992-08-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Landscape Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 61-acre woodland memorial garden on the southeast shore of Lake Springfield, near Springfield, Illinois, designed by landscape architect Jens Jensen in the 1930s as a living memorial to Abraham Lincoln.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the garden as Jensen's last great public work, designed without fee and with near-total control over site selection and planting. It shows his Prairie style principles using native plants, stratified limestone council rings and naturalistic trails. It also reflects Jensen's influence on later landscape architects and the conservation movement.","narrative":"Abraham Lincoln Memorial Garden occupies about 61 acres along the southeast side of Lake Springfield, roughly 11 miles from central Springfield, Illinois. The garden began in 1932 when the Springfield Civic Garden Club asked to create a woodland memorial to Lincoln on the new lake's shore. Landscape architect Jens Jensen designed it without charge and helped choose the site, a stretch of former farmland with varied terrain. His plan uses only plants native to the states where Lincoln lived, arranged along naturalistic trails with meadows, groves and lakeside plantings. Eight stratified limestone council rings, earthen bridges, granite entrance boulders, stone fountains and a split rail fence of white oak give the grounds a rustic character. Later additions include wooden benches, a Nature Center built in 1965 and a rebuilt Walgreen Bridge. The nomination describes the garden as Jensen's last major public work and as an example of his Prairie style design, which influenced later landscape architects and conservation thinking in the Midwest.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Jens Jensen (landscape architect)","architectural_style":"Prairie School or Landscape Architecture","criteria":[],"status_note":"Largely as originally laid out by Jensen; remains a garden and conservation area with a Nature Center and trails in current use.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.97545-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/86/8940/28894086/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/92001016.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92001016/a9ffe18dbf-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92001016/a9ffe18dbf-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"spfldnet","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lincoln_Memorial_Garden_-_panoramio.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">spfldnet</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lincoln_Memorial_Garden_-_panoramio.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28894086","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_Memorial_Garden","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q610145"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/sangamon-county/lincoln-abraham-memorial-garden-92001016/"}