The War Department Era: Reggie

Sinking Spring

Join Reggie for a recorded talk about the War Department Era.

• Stonework of the War Department Era

  
  

  Learn more about the time when the War Department managed the site.

  Date created:

  09/20/2024

  Audio Transcript

  My name is Reggie Price, and I work for the National Park Service. I have been here for 16 years, working for the maintenance division. My job duties include both custodial and groundskeeping for both the Birthplace and Knob Creek Units. I was born in Hodgenville, and this place has always been my home. My grandfather on my mother’s side, Ernest Bennett, was on a crew here during the war department era.

  The war department era lasted from 1916 until 1933. The Lincoln Farm Association continued to lobby congress for national part status of the site.

  In July 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed H. R. 8351, declaring the Lincoln Birthplace “forever dedicated to the purpose of a national park or reservation” The maintenance and care of the site was tasked to the War Department.

  An early report of the included a description of the Sinking Spring as “the only natural distinguishing feature of the farm and “picturesque as an object of interest”

  Access of the spring was said to be though a “narrow opening in the hedge… over a series of stone flags half way down the steep slope. The balance of the difference, of about 30 feet, is by foot path”

  During heavy rains, the path became covered in “six inches of silt, resulting in a “slippery, dangerous condition, a loss of footing might mean a ten foot fall”

  It was recommended that the crushed rock base of the plaza, as well as the stairway landings, be replaced with “sidewalk brick on a concrete foundation”

  It was not until 1928 that funds were provided to make much needed improvements to the maintenance and repair of the site.

  My grandfather was one of the masons that created the stone walls of the sinking spring. The same stone walls that you can see not only at the spring, but around the park. All of this was the efforts by the war department to improve the site for the visiting public.

  Today, the site is maintained by the National Park Service, and I have gotten to spend 16 years at one of the maintenance workers taking care of the cultural and natural landscapes.