Petersburg Historic District

Petersburg Historic District takes in most of the Menard County seat, a town on the bluffs above the Sangamon River about 23 miles north of Springfield. Commercial buildings cluster around the courthouse square, while churches and mostly frame houses spread across a rectangular street grid. The earliest houses date from 1826 to the mid-1840s, with Greek Revival, Queen Anne and many substantial Italianate residences from about 1865 to 1876. The district matters first for its origins: Abraham Lincoln surveyed and re-platted the town in 1836, and it is the only town known to have been platted by him. Prominent lawyers, legislators, merchants and bankers built large homes here, and Edgar Lee Masters spent his boyhood in a house now preserved as a memorial. The town's slow growth left much of its older building stock standing, although siding, storefront remodeling and some new construction have caused intrusions. Oakland Cemetery is included within the boundary.