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Nancy Lincoln Inn
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| Nearest city: | Hodgenville, Kentucky |
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| Built: | 1928 |
| Architectural style: | Bungalow/Craftsman |
| Governing body: | Private |
| MPS: | Larue County MPS |
| NRHP Reference#: |
90001973 [1] |
| Added to NRHP: | January 10, 1991 |
The Nancy Lincoln Inn is a historic building located at the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Site in LaRue County, Kentucky, just south of Hodgenville, Kentucky. Despite being on National Park Service property, it is privately owned.[2]
Built in 1928, the one-story unhewn chestnut and red heart pine log building is of American Craftsman style with five bays. It has a stone foundation, limestone chimney, and gabled roof. To the east are four small overnight cabins also built in 1928. They are also of unhewn chestnut logs, concrete chinking, brick chimneys, and asphalt shingles.[2][3]
The Nancy Lincoln Inn and its cabins were built to serve the many visitors who wished to visit the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln. The increase in tourism during the 1920s was due to the ease of transportation that all the new paved roads in LaRue County provided. Jim Howell was the original operator of the inn, from 1928 to 1946; his descendants have operated it ever since.[4] The inn rented out the cabins and served food until World War II; the cabins would once again be rented out after they were restored by their owners Carl and Sharon Howell, Jr. in 2005, with air conditioning added. However, guests have to use an outside modern bathhouse due to a lack of indoor plumbing.[2]
A National Park Service evaluation called the inn an "unacceptable adjacent commercialization" in 1934, and red cedar trees were planted to obstruct the view of the inn to the memorial log cabin temple.[5]
Over 100,000 tourists go into the Nancy Lincoln Inn every year, mostly to buy souvenirs; it makes $56,000 in sales.[6] It has undergone no major alterations in its years of service. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 10, 1991, due to its role in the expansion of tourism in LaRue County.[4]