Streetscape 1859

Streetscape 1859. Looking for Lincoln. , North side of the public square , This is the how the north side of the public square looked from this vantage point (circa 1859), looking east along Washington Street. The rickety wood structures of "Chicken Row" that had been familiar to Lincoln when he arrived twenty years earlier had been replaced by substantial commercial buildings, including five dry goods stores, two clothiers, a shoe and leather shop, a hardware store, a confectionery, a grocery, a furniture store, a tin and stove dealer, a jeweler, and a tobacco shop. Several lawyers, doctors, photographers, and dentists had offices in various upper rooms. On the third floor of the long building in the center of the block was the Concert Hall where traveling performers and local talents provided many evenings of entertainment.

View north from the Capitol cupola , This is one of four panoramic landscapes painted from a perspective atop the Old State Capitol sometime between late 1848 and early 1854. The identity of the artist is not known for sure, though it may have been one of the period;s many painters of traveling canvass panorama exhibits. The original paintings are displayed in the Old State Capitol. Comparing the 1859 photograph with this earlier landscape portrait reveals the improvement in buildings over time along the north side of the public square.