wish I was here... Springfield, Illinois

You could be forgiven for not realising that Springfield is the administrative capital of Illinois, even after you have been there.

Two hundred miles south of Chicago, in the midst of the flat featureless prairie country of the mid-west USA, it is a pretty but small town with white clapboard houses and mile-long grain trains which snake slowly across the dusty, disorganised main street. Springfield was the home and political power base of President Abraham Lincoln, whose remains were brought home from Washington after his assassination in 1865.

We were in Springfield on a pilgrimage, but it had nothing to do with Lincoln. Two blocks from the Governor's mansion, beside the railway tracks lies a 1902 house by the greatest architect of the 20th century. The Dana Thomas House by Frank Lloyd Wright is perfectly preserved, it has long low horizontal roofs, wide overhanging gables and endless ribbons of amber art glass. The original fittings include more than 250 art glass windows, sculptures and murals and more than 100 pieces of white oak furniture. It is, in short, beautiful.

Stephen Boyle

Copyright 2001
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