Celebrate Abe's birthday at the newly renovated Lincoln “Biography” Building in Downtown West Chester

It’s Abe Lincoln’s 203rd Birthday!   Take a tour of
the newly renovated Lincoln  “Biography”
Building in downtown West Chester.  Enjoy refreshments and meet several local authors and artists. 

The downstairs “Lincoln Room” café will host the event, but
the entire five-story building will be open for tours from 12 Noon to 3 p.m. this Sunday, February  12^th.

Other highlights of the afternoon include two authors,
Catherine Quillman, who will be signing her latest book, 100 Artists of the Brandywine Valley,   and Bruce Mowday who will be signing several books including his latest Jailing the Johnson Brothers

There will be five artists who have created works of the
Lincoln Building or of West Chester in attendance. They include  John Hannafin, Jr., Timlyn Vaughan, Polly
Chalfant, Mark Cole, and Fred Weyman, a photographer who took the snowy backyard view of  the Lincoln Building posted here.

Why is the building known as the Lincoln “Biography” Building?   A few details:  

After severe water damage in 2011, the
Lincoln Building has been very carefully restored and preserved to protect its historic heritage. Built in 1833, this stately brick structure is considered one of Chester County’s premier examples of Federalist style architecture. When it was first built – at five stories tall, complete with expensive windows and an “oratory” balcony – it was meant to be the tallest commercial building in
downtown West Chester.  Today, the building is described as the “first” building in West Chester’s second
architectural period.

Its most important historic era occurred in the mid-1800s when it housed the offices of a newspaper man named
Joseph Lewis, who penned the first biography of the 16^th president and published it on the front page of the Chester
County Times on February 11, 1860. 

The biography is best known for its passage about Abraham Lincoln growing up poor and reading books by the firelight. While true, it is perhaps the original political “spin” – Lincoln himself is to have credited the
biography for helping him win both the presidential nomination and the election.