Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2008 > April > 04 > Entry
Mike DeWine has a room at Lincoln’s Cottage
Recently my husband, a Lincoln buff, and I visited Lincoln’s Cottage in Washington, D.C. I had read that former Sen. Mike DeWine was a big supporter of restoring the site, but I didn’t know he had a room there named after him.
DeWine was instrumental in getting $5.5 million in federal money over four years for the $15-million restoration project. The National Trust for Historic Preservation was so grateful for his support, it named one of three galleries at the interpretive center after him.
DeWine also spoke at the opening of the site on President’s Day this year.
In his short speech, he said, “You can’t understand George Washington without knowing Mount Vernon. You can’t understand Churchill without knowing Chartwell. You can’t understand FDR without knowing Hyde Park. And, just the same, you can’t truly understand Abraham Lincoln without knowing this cottage, where he spent a quarter of his presidency.”
To tour the cottage, order your tickets online before you go. They were sold out for the day we were there. You can visit the interpretive center’s galleries without a ticket.
The 75-minute tour is wonderful. A guide tells much of the history and of Lincoln’s affection for the place, often called Lincoln’s Camp David. But there are also audio and video presentations where you learn about the three-mile commute Lincoln made to the White House every day, often ditching the soldiers who were supposed to be guarding him.
On one occasion, someone shot at the president. The bullet hole through his stove-pipe hat was evidence that he insisted shouldn’t be shared with others, including Mary Todd Lincoln.
Now a retirement home for veterans, there is a cemetery on the grounds. Lincoln could look out the windows and see soldiers being buried every day that he was there. Mrs. Lincoln visited soldiers who were being tended at a make-shift hospital on the grounds.
There are no Lincoln artifacts. But the home itself is enough to fire your imagination, to help you picture Lincoln looking down upon the city, which itself was vulnerable to attack, and praying for guidance on how to save the Union.
Go see it. You’ll be touched.
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By Mary
April 4, 2008 5:49 PM | Link to this
Maybe this “$15 million dollar cottage” deserved every penny and DeWine deserves a lot of the credit. However, the naming rights games on what appears to be largely taxpayer funded efforts gets to be a little tiresome or annoying. A few weeks ago the Dayton Daily News had an article about the Schuster Center. Apparently, the Shusters contributed “only” $8 million of the $121 million cost. I am assuming taxpayers paid the brunt of the costs, but got little credit when it came to naming rights. I think former Senator DeWine was also instrumental in federal funds going into the new baseball stadium near Washington D.C. I question motivations and wisdom on how funds like these are spent when our infrastructure such as roads and bridges are collapsing and we are going into debt over the War in Iraq. This is largely the taxpayers’ money, afterall, that is being spent by or for the honor of the honorees. Maybe we should start calling these buildings, centers, and stadiums “The Peoples’ Monuments to Deficit Spending” with dollar numbers assigned.