A stroll through history

SPRINGFIELD -- A free walking tour of Vachel Lindsay's Springfield, featuring many homes and buildings in the Old Aristocracy Hill neighborhood, will be offered Saturday, July 22 starting promptly at 9:15 a.m. at the Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic Site, 603 S. Fifth Street.  This is the only tour offered, so if participants miss the 9:15 departure time they are welcome to join the tour along the route.

 

            Using the brochure A Tour of Vachel Lindsay's Springfield as a guide, staff and volunteers from the Vachel Lindsay Home will lead participants through some of the city's most historic areas.  Some of the sites to be featured were important in Lindsay's life, while others are significant structures from the period, and tour leaders will discuss the histories and architectural details of the buildings.  Featured sites include the First Christian Church, Iles House, Lincoln Home neighborhood, Mischler House, YWCA,  and several ongoing restorations on Seventh, Eighth, Edwards and Fifth Streets.

  

            The leisurely tour is free and open to the public, and will end about 11:45 a.m.  Participants are advised to wear comfortable walking shoes, and to note that sidewalks are uneven in several places along the tour.  Iced tea, lemonade and cookies will be served at the Vachel Lindsay Home at the conclusion of the tour, where participants may enjoy the summer garden planted with flowers that Lindsay family history recalls were planted there.  Participants are invited to bring a sack lunch if they would like to stay longer and enjoy a tour of the restored Lindsay Home afterwards.  The home opens at noon for free public tours.  

 

            The walking tour will be cancelled if it is raining heavily.  Call the Vachel Lindsay Home at (217) 524-0901 for more information.

 

            The Old Aristocracy Hill neighborhood has been mentioned in numerous publications over the years, including this excerpt from a May 13, 1854 article in The Illinois Journal:  "Last night, we shaped our course southward, towards what is called, ‘Aristocracy Hill.'  We don't know why that name especially belongs to that region, unless it is that the folks there build handsome houses, have good sidewalks, and decorate their yards with trees, shrubbery and flowers.  We should judge that ‘old fogyism' has never taken much root in that part of town."     

 

            The Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic Site, administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (www.Illinois-History.gov), is the birthplace and longtime residence of poet, author and artist Nicholas Vachel Lindsay, 1879 - 1931.  It is open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. for free public tours.