Great Western Depot Three months after his election in November
1860, Abraham Lincoln left Springfield for Washington, D.C. to
become the 16th President of the United States. The special
train that would take him there left the Great Western Depot on
the rainy morning of Monday, February 11, 1861, the last day
Lincoln spent in Springfield. This is the story of that depot
and the attempts to preserve it. The Great Western Railroad
constructed the Depot in 1852. Fire heavily damaged the small
structure in 1857, thus requiring extensive remodeling. Although
this photograph was taken in 1887, the Depot had probably
undergone few changes since the day Lincoln departed from here
in 1861. In 1867, a variety of small railroads including the
Great Western Railroad, merged to form the Toledo, Wabash, and
Western Railroad, which later became the Wabash Railroad. A year
later, the railroad moved its Springfield passenger operations
to an elaborate station at Tenth and Washington Streets, which
served until 1938. The Waba