The Mathews County Sesquicentennial Committee will hold a free lecture at 7 o’clock tonight on “Lincoln’s Summer Cottage” at the Kingston Episcopal Church parish house on Main Street.

Callie Hawkins, associate director for programs at President Lincoln’s Cottage on the grounds of the Soldiers’ Home in northwest Washington, D.C., is the featured speaker.

Lincoln’s time at the cottage served as bookends for the Civil War—he first visited its grounds three days after his inauguration and last rode out to the site the day before his assassination. While living at the cottage for 13 months from 1862 to 1864, Lincoln regularly commuted to the White House. It was at the cottage where he developed the Emancipation Proclamation.

The cottage opened to the public in 2008 and is run by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a private, nonprofit organization, through an agreement with the Armed Forces Retirement Home.

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