Spring at SS House

A spring committee meeting at Strawbridge-Shepherd House.  Above, the executive committee members are seated on the south lawn. From left to right: Carol Dyson, R-Lou Barker, David Barrows, Sue Massie and Carolyn Oxtoby.

Professor William Siles of the UIS History department is an authority on 19th-century material culture. He was conducting his last class of the semester at the House.

Here, Prof. Siles and his class meet beside the summer kitchen, with a spring prairie view in the background.

We are making great progress on restoration of the House. Volunteers are always welcome. Call or write the Iles House Foundation at the addresses posted above.

Pictures and captions by Dick Hart

Days of Mourning

Once again the Iles House will be draped in mourning

to honor the death of Abraham Lincoln.

He died 144 years ago this week.

The House will wear drapes from April 14 to May 5.

Iles House is open for tours Wed & Sat, 12 to 4 pm.
Update: see the Lincoln Memorial Diary at the NY Times.

Photo by Richard Hart

This Place Matters

The National Trust for Historic Preservation invites you to tell about a place that matters through its This Places Matters campaign.  

The campaign helps people call attention to special places in their community before they are endangered -- the small, famous and infamous, and even some relatively obscure, that collectively represent the nation's cultural consciousness.

Simply visit www.PreservationNation.org/thisplacematters to download a This Place Matters sign, take a picture or make a video at the place that matters to you and post it to our slide show.  Don't have a picture?  Plant your flag on our This Place Matters Google map.

So celebrate a place you love, sound an alarm about a place that is threatened or just start a conversation about places that matter.