President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home

Four presidents of the United States escaped the heat and humidity of summer in Washington, DC at The Old Soldiers' Home on a hill three miles from the White House. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln spent June to November, 1862-1864 in a 34-room Gothic Revival "cottage" there. He reportedly made his last visit to the house, on April 13, 1865, the day before his assassination. He found cool breezes and quiet, but he brought his wartime responsibilities with him. Lincoln was staying in this house when he wrote the final draft of the Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862. Frederick Douglass, the famous African American abolitionist and writer, called the proclamation “the immortal paper, making slavery forever impossible in the United States.