Daily Blog: Gettysburg Opens House Where Lincoln Slept...and Wrote

A few weeks ago, the National Park Service opened a new museum in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: The David Wills House.

The house itself sits in the middle of town. It was the home of David Wills, a prominent Gettysburg lawyer during the Civil War who proposed to create a cemetery and invited Lincoln to speak at the ceremony. To Wills' surprise, Lincoln agreed. And the night before he delivered the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln stayed in Wills' house:

"David Wills, the lawyer who invited Lincoln to make 'a few appropriate remarks' at the dedication, offered his and his wife’s own bedroom in their home on the town square.

It was in that room, historians agree, that Lincoln put the final touches on the Gettysburg Address."

The museum itself is a sight to behold: nearly every piece of furniture in Lincoln's room is original. When a visitor steps in this room, he can see it exactly as it was in November, 1863 when Lincoln stayed and wrote there.

The David Wills museum, combined with the new visitors' center at the battlefield, make Gettysburg, Pennsylvania a place to see for tourists and history buffs.