First Logan House

Third and madison Streets
c. 1830-1834

Photo courtesy of Richard E. Hart

This house, occupied by Stephen T. Logan and his family when they first moved to Springfield in 1834, was one of the more substantial places in town. Logan’s great-grandson later described it this way:
"A fairly sizable house for that day, it stood one and a half or two stories high. The first story was of a basement type, perhaps one-half below the ground level, yet extending sufficiently above the ground level to enable the placement of fairly high windows for adequate light and ventilation. The approach was at the center of the north side by means of some half dozen steps which led up to an entrance on the second or main floor. The roof, slanting to the north and south over the west portion, had two or three dormer windows on the north side. The east portion, with roof sloping to the east and west, suggests that the two parts of the house may not have been built simultaneously. The construction was of brick, in later years painted red, trimmed in green and with the typical green shutters of an early architecture."
Logan sold this house to Ninian Edwards, who sold it to William Butler, with whom Lincoln took his meals as a young lawyer while he was sharing a room with Joshua Speed.