Abraham Lincoln's Cottage at Soldiers' Home
When President Lincoln needed a vacation he didn't go far. In fact, his respite was located just a mere three miles from the White House on the Soldiers' Home complex in Washington D.C. Not only did President Lincoln and his family spend three summers (1862-1864) at Anderson Cottage, located in the complex, they also lived in the home through November of those years. Lincoln would make the three-mile trip to the White House every day while he lived in the cottage, which had been founded as a home for retired and disabled veterans of U.S. wars. It is said that Lincoln would sometimes greet cottage guests in his slippers and that it was the place where he wrote the Emancipation Proclamation and learned of the triumph at Gettysburg. Now officially known as the Lincoln Cottage, the home and its 2.3 acres of land were declared the President Lincoln and Soldiers' Home National Monument by President Clinton in 2000. After a $15 million restoration, Lincoln's Cottage was opened to the public for the first time in 2008.