Hildene - The home of Robert Todd Lincoln

Hildene was the residence of Robert Todd Lincoln , the son of president Abraham Lincoln . The family resided in the home until 1974 . It is now open to the public as a museum. When we visited in January, of course the beautiful formal gardens were not open .

The entrance to the mansion is at the southern end of Manchester . After you turn into the driveway, you’ll drive and about a mile back to the house itself . The self guided tour for the three of us cost $24.00 . The mansion contains a wealth of Lincoln memorabilia including a beaver hat that the president once wore, photographs , and much more . There is a magnificent player pipe organ in the entrance . The pipes themselves are behind  beautiful scroll work on the stairs . In addition to the organ there is a huge collection of original scrolls for the player . These were paper scrolls punched out in a way that controlled the organ . The folks at the museum have taken some of these and encoded these on floppy diskette. They can now play some of the music from the Lincoln’s collection for visitors without any risk to the original scrolls .

The south side of the second floor contains an exhibition of civil war artifacts and memorabilia .

In winter time, you can ski cross country or walk the trails surrounding the home on showshoes.

It is definitely worth a trip to visit this important piece of our history .

for more information:

Hildene
Friends of Hildene, Inc
. PO Box 377, 1005 Hildene Road, Manchester, VT 05254