Save Springfield’s Maisenbacher House
November 5, 2007 by jobconger
Picutred above: the Maisenbacher house, Seventh at Scarrit. Abraham Lincoln knew this house when he lived in Springfield. Many good citizens (innocent until proven illegal) are urging Springifeld Clinic not to destroy it. Pictures at this posting are thumbnailed. Click on any for a larger view and “Back” to return to this posting.
Late last Firday I received an email from Jerry Jacobson, the founder of Save Old Springfield (SOS), a one-man (as in NOT an organization) effort to prevent the destruction of historic homes and buildings that the developers have somehow missed in their dedicated efforts to plow under our city’s rich historic past. Late Friday he sent an e-mail to some selected friends (I was honored to be among them) asking them to write letters to the editor at the State Journal Register exhorting the community to put pressure on Springfield Clinic not to destroy the Maisenbacher house, across from the current main facility. I shared in my reply to him, my reluctance to risk my name on any letter to print media given my coveted , though as solid as Casper’s convivial countenance, association with Illinois Times. I did promise to take some pictures of the Maisenbacher House and to publsish Jerry’s take on theywhat and why. Here is the text of his reply . . . .
<>The Maisenbacher House is an excellent example of a mid-19th century brick Italianate residence in near-original condition. Although once quite common, only a few of these gracefully designed brick buildings remain in Springfield. This one, dating to about 1860, retains virtually allof its distinctive wood trim, both interior and exterior.
The building is one of a dwindling number that remain from the time that Lincoln lived here, and among far fewer that have a direct connecton with the 16th president: documentary evidence indicates that funding for the down payment on the home came as a loan from Mr. Lincoln himself.
–Jerry
I visited the yhouse Monday afternoon and took 24 pictures of it, most destined for oblivion or an archive somewhere,. I do want to share some of the best of what I shot with you here.
I am curious about how readers of Honey & Quinine feel about the future of Maisenbacher House. There were moments as I photographed it that, had I been alone in the city I would have shed more than a few tears over its state and apparent fate. During this time I began to understand how Jerry Jacobsen must feel.
I hate to see buildings of any kind torn down, especially one with historical significance. Springfield has a real problem with this.
But on the other hand, it’s going to take so much money just to jack it up and move it somewhere to spare it from “progress,” even before one brick gets tuckpointed or someone pulls that chair down from the roof.
It’s almost like, “What’s the point?”
Thanks for visiing, and thanks for your good and cogent thought. I HOPE JERRY JACOBSON will visit this blog (he knows wehre it is) and respond to your posint as well.
Springfield has to make tough choices if it wants to continue the race to become the “Cash for You Car Title” capital of the country. Sometimes old buildings need to be torn down to make way for new Payday Loan shops. Progress is never easy.
M.R. Good to “hear” from you as always. Your comment inspired me to share this poem by Vachel Lindsay. I recite it almost everywhere I am booked to do my Vachel Lindsay program and often to innocent, unsuspecting good people like you>
What the Sexton Said
by Vachel Lindsay
Your dust will be upon the wind
Within som certain years
Though you be sealed in lead today
Amid the country’s tears.
When this idyllic churchyard
Becomes the heart of town,
The place to bui9ld garage or inn,
They’ll tear your tombstone down.
Your name so dim, so long outworn,
Your bones so near the earth,
Your sturdy kindred dead and gone,
How should men know your worth.
So read upon the runic moon
Man’s epitaph deep-writ.
It says the world is one great grave.
For names it cares no whit.
It tells the folks to live in peace,
And still in peace to die.
At least, so speaks the moon to me:
The tombstone of the sky.
I knew the family that previously owned this house and i frequently visited this house. i thought it was kinda spooky and odd. with all of the lamp hooks on the living room ceiling to the chair out side thier daughters window. that house was in pretty good condition not 5 months ago. i, aswell as others, are very offended by what the press has done to this house. they have made it out to look like a abandoned shack that has been rotting for years. that is not the case. this house was not just a piece of history. it was a home. the s-jr pictures of this house had shown that this house was neglected. that is not the case at all. someone had done something to disrespect a piece of springfield’s history. our town is limited on its historical sites now that we are building things over cemetaries and knocking down houses that have been around since good abe was here, just for a parking lot. in my opinion as well as others, this isnt fair. our society has become selfish and greedy. I whole heartedly agree with saving this house… it was beautiful. you would get lost, but be amazed if you lived there.
Byn –
Thanks for your excellent observations, memories and opinion. I agree with you 100 percent. The sad thing is, they don’t need to destroy that house to succeed as a corporation. WHY do it? It reminds me of our soldiers who fought a rear guard action in the Phillipines, who, as prisoners of war, wwere massacred by their captors during the Bataan Death March in early 1942. If it had been possible to approach one of the enemy and ask, WHY do you wantonly kill these brave men? Their replies would have been the same: “Because I CAN!”: