St. Nicholas Hotel

City: Springfield

County: Sangamon

State: Illinois

Dr. John D. Freeman was the architect and original owner of the St. Nicholas Hotel, which was built in Springfield at the corner of Fourth and Jefferson streets in 1856. The hotel as originally constructed was four stories tall, had sixty-six rooms, and could accommodate approximately 150 guests. The first floor of the building held offices and shops. The St. Nicholas Hotel opened for business in January of 1857 and accommodated both travelers and lodgers. Thomas D. Wickersham was the landlord of the St. Nicholas when it opened; when he incurred debts related to furnishing the hotel, Lincoln & Herndon successfully represented creditors who sued him in Sangamon County Circuit Court. Wickersham’s finances were further damaged by the Panic of 1857 and Fenner Aldrich took over management of the hotel in the autumn of 1857. John D. Freeman and a partner took up operation of the St. Nicholas again briefly in 1860, but Freeman ultimately gave up proprietorship later that year, leasing the hotel and its contents to James W. Sponsler. Following Abraham Lincoln’s election to the presidency in 1860, a group of Republicans in Cincinnati commissioned sculptor Thomas D. Jones to create a bust of him. In December of 1860 and January of 1861, Lincoln sat for Jones daily in an improvised art studio at the St. Nicholas. Freeman sold the hotel to John McCreery in 1864.

Wayne C. Temple, Lincoln and Others at the St. Nicholas (Springfield: St. Nicholas Corporation, 1968), 3-24, 31-34, 45–48; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 23 December 1856, 3:1; 6 January 1857, 2:6; 15 January 1857, 2:3; Illinois Daily State Journal (Springfield), 3 September 1860, 3:2; 12 September 1860, 2:5; Miller & Scott v. Wickersham, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), https://lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=138884; Miller & Scott v. Wickersham et al., Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, https://lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=139024; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 5 July 1858, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-07-05; 27 December 1860, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1860-12-27; 12 January 1861, https://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1861-01-12.