# Hotel Abraham Lincoln Was Staying In **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 15, 2009, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-abraham-lincoln-was-staying-in/506479 "2009-08-15T01:15:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-abraham-lincoln-was-staying-in/506479/1 "2009-08-15T01:15:08Z")
What hotel did Abraham Lincoln stay in during the Republican convention in Chicago in 1860? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-abraham-lincoln-was-staying-in/506479/2 "2009-08-15T01:58:39Z")
He didn’t. He was at home in Springfield during the Republican convention in Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-abraham-lincoln-was-staying-in/506479/3 "2009-08-15T13:12:34Z")
Dammit, you ruined my Holiday Inn Express joke! ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-abraham-lincoln-was-staying-in/506479/4 "2009-08-15T13:25:30Z")
Until FDR or so, candidates stayed at home to look more presidential. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-abraham-lincoln-was-staying-in/506479/5 "2009-08-15T18:47:47Z")
FDR was the first nominee to address the convention. It was considered bad form to appear to seek the office (though you could politic behind the scenes). The concept was that “the office should seek the man” and that actually campaigning for the nomination meant you weren’t the right man for the job. There were exceptions. William Jennings Bryan was the keynote speaker at the 1896 convention, but he was not actively campaigning prior to the convention. His “Cross of Gold” speech won him the nomination. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-abraham-lincoln-was-staying-in/506479/6 "2009-08-15T20:57:01Z")
OTOH the Willard Hotel, where Lincoln stayed before moving into the White House in March 1861, still stands and is still in business on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-abraham-lincoln-was-staying-in/506479/7 "2009-08-15T21:25:38Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > OTOH the Willard Hotel, where Lincoln stayed before moving into the White House in March 1861, still stands and is still in business on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington. Well, sort of. That hotel was torn down and a new hotel was built on the site in 1901, which stayed in business until it was closed in 1968. It stayed vacant for almost two decades, and then was bought, renovated, and reopened in 1986. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-abraham-lincoln-was-staying-in/506479/8 "2009-08-15T21:38:47Z")
The question being answered, the hotel the delegates stayed in was the [The Tremont House](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremont_House_(Chicago)). After Lincoln’s death Mary Todd and Tad lived there for at time before buying a house in Chicago (which IIRC she never lived in). The Republican Convention itself was at [The Wigwam](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wigwam_(Chicago)), what we would call a convention center. Lincoln had some “unofficial” law partners in Chicago- younger or less successful lawyers who used his name on their masthead in exchange for a fee and an occasional consultation, and he did travel to Chicago upon occasion in his law practice, but he usually stayed with friends and colleagues there. Lincoln had stayed at the Tremont however and gave a speech from its balcony. Trivia: Before her first engagement to Lincoln Mary Todd dated and was fairly serious about Stephen Douglas (to my knowledge the only woman who has ever been involved with both candidates at a presidential convention), but ultimately he was too far apart from her own views, especially on slavery. (Her father was a slaveowner but also an abolitionist, and Mary shared his views; one of their houseslaves helped runaways from their kitchen in Kentucky.) Stephen Douglas died at the Tremont Hotel two months after he would have been inaugurated president had he won, thus she left the death residence of one beau for the death residence of another. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-abraham-lincoln-was-staying-in/506479/9 "2009-08-15T22:42:38Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Stephen Douglas died at the Tremont Hotel two months after he would have been inaugurated president had he won, thus she left the death residence of one beau for the death residence of another. Of course, Douglas, if elected president, probably wouldn’t have contracted typhoid, and died. She probably ditched him because of his height. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2009, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-abraham-lincoln-was-staying-in/506479/10 "2009-08-15T23:46:30Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Trivia: Before her first engagement to Lincoln Mary Todd dated and was fairly serious about Stephen Douglas (to my knowledge the only woman who has ever been involved with both candidates at a presidential convention), but ultimately he was too far apart from her own views, especially on slavery. Presidential election, not convention? Douglas ran for the northern Democrats in the 1860 election. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-abraham-lincoln-was-staying-in/506479/11 "2009-08-16T16:20:14Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Presidential election, not convention? Douglas ran for the northern Democrats in the 1860 election. And, of course, there were two other candidates that Mrs. Lincoln was never romantically involved with, slut though she were. (I kid, I kid) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-abraham-lincoln-was-staying-in/506479/12 "2009-08-16T19:23:15Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Presidential election, not convention? Douglas ran for the northern Democrats in the 1860 election. Election, yes. [QUOTE=Captain Amazing] And, of course, there were two other candidates that Mrs. Lincoln was never romantically involved with, slut though she were. (I kid, I kid) [/QUOTE] Though there is unsubstantiated mention in some sources that she was courted by Jefferson Davis. It’s quite possible and would even make sense: he was frequently in Kentucky and was a handsome West Point graduate with an interest in politics. However Mary was far too passionate in her political views to have ever even tried to compromise them enough to meet Davis halfway. I doubt they were involved but I think it’s possible they met and she quickly said to herself “what an arrogant horse’s ass”. I think it’s interesting that she’s one of the only women of her time to ever break up with men due to their political leanings. She’s so often just brushed aside as “poor crazy spendaholic hellcat Mary” today when she was really an incredibly complex and brilliant person who was way ahead of her time (including being born too early for Prozac). ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2009, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-abraham-lincoln-was-staying-in/506479/13 "2009-08-16T19:52:49Z")
The 1860 election is interesting if for no other reason than it was a “border state” election. Douglas, while born in Vermont, lived for most of his adult life in Illinois. Lincoln was born in Kentucky and lived in Illinois. Breckenridge was born and lived almost his entire life in Kentucky, and John Bell was from Tennessee. The candidates were from a remarkably narrow geographic area.