Lincoln Birthplace

The Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site is located in Larue County near the city of Hodgenville. The site features an early nineteenth-century cabin symbolic of the one in which Lincoln was born. Lincoln’s parents, Thomas and Nancy, moved to the Sinking Spring farm in 1808 where the sixteenth president was born on February 12, 1809.

The Lincolns resided at the Sinking Spring Farm for two years until they were forced to relocate because of a conflicting land claim. The family moved approximately ten miles northeast to the Knob Creek farm, where they resided until 1816.

The Birthplace Cabin is housed in a memorial building--the cornerstone of which was placed by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1909. President William Howard Taft dedicated the memorial building in 1911, and a visitor center was completed in 1959. The visitor center currently houses a museum exhibit, theatre space, and a gift shop. Annual visitation at the Lincoln Birthplace averages 200,000 people.

The Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site is a focal point of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commemoration scheduled from 2008 to 2010. The site will host the “Kickoff” to the national celebration on February 12, 2008.

Lincoln Birthplace Memorial