President Lincoln's Cottage, Washington DC

I wasn't sure what to expect when I visited in November 2022. From DC, I traveled via Metro and Bus to get here. I was surprised that the cottage is bare except for a few pieces. No photography is allowed inside the cottage which surprised me as that's generally a good way to get free advertisement on social media... It is beautiful space in the cottage and can imagine some of the activities during the Lincoln's time here. It's clearly used more as an event space than a place for tours. The campus where it is has great character. Take in the moments when visiting.

Though the cottage is a little out of the way, the tour guide was informative. The house itself doesn’t have much in terms of decoration but that wasn’t too big of a deal. There are elevators available to get to various levels. However, we did have an issue where the elevator got stuck and a couple people missed out on the end of the tour. They were refunded but it would have been good for the tour guide to have waited on those who needed extra time getting up stairs before starting her upstairs tour and she may have been able to get them help sooner. Other than that, I would recommend visiting. It’s a little out of the way but make sure you have a tour booked in advance and give yourself some time extra time to get there.

President Lincoln’s Cottage is a beautiful historic site, a must see! You can feel the soul of Lincoln in this home, its like going back in time and walking in the very private place where Mr.Lincoln often spend some of his most wonderful and difficult times in his life. Beautiful place!

Part of this may be my fault, part of it may not be my fault. In the end, we showed up not realizing we had to be part of the tour. We showed up, we were greeted by security and told they had a large school group coming in. To me, that meant nothing, so we hurried inside, went to the registration area, and we were told that we couldn't go inside of the Cottage because school tour was starting in 15-minutes. I asked about doing a self-guided tour, as I would have been out of there and I was told that was not offered, but I could look at a few of the rooms within the Visitor Center. Overall, the grounds are nice, I think communication is horrible. If you are going make sure you can actually be part of a tour before you waste the time going there.

One of many hidden treasures in DC!!! Do yourself a favor and experience President Lincoln's Cottage; the grounds are amazing AND the additional services offered on the campus (school/Soldier's Home) is 🤯🤯🤯