Not really, but if he had, Mr. Lincoln would have felt right at home in the Dickinson House. Located in Manotick, a pretty village south of Ottawa, the house was modelled after the Lincoln home in Springfield, Illinois (as per the historical plaque out front).
Moss Dickinson was born in Denmark, New York on June 1,1822. He moved to Cornwall, Ontario with his parents in 1827. His father, Barnabus, started a stage coach service that carried mail and passengers between Montreal and Kingston. Moss followed his father into the transportation business, and by 1850, he owned a fleet of 16 steamers and 60 barges that transported passengers and supplies between Kingston and Ottawa.
In 1860, Dickinson built a mill in Manotick with his partner, Joseph Currier. In 1867, he built a fine house across from the mill. The house first served as a general store and Manotick’s first post office, and then in 1870 Dickinson moved into the house with his family. In 1882, the house served as the campaign headquarters for John A. MacDonald, Canada’s first prime minister. By 1896, Moss’ health was failing, and he died in the house on July 19th, 1897.
Photo credit Wikipedia
When Abraham and Mary Lincoln bought their Springfield home in 1844, it was a one-story building. They enlarged the house with a full second floor in 1856. When Lincoln won the 1860 Republican Presidential nomination, he received a delegation of party officials in his parlor. Three of the four Lincoln sons were born in the house.
The Lincoln house displays a number of Greek revival features. Interest in Greek architecture grew out of the war for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire (1821-30). Although there was sympathy for the Greek cause in Europe and Britain (both Shelley and Byron died in Greece), it was in the United States, which had fought its own Revolutionary War some decades earlier (1775–1783) that identification with the Greek cause was perhaps strongest. This identification was reflected in an interest in Greek revival architecture.
Greek revival houses share features such as a strongly symmetrical facade with other neo-classical styles. Typical Greek revival features in the Lincoln house include the three-dimensional recessed main entrance with sidelights and a sculptural door frame, the prominent cornice along the lower edge of the roof, wide-panelled sideboards at the corners of the house and six-over-six sash windows. At the gable end of the low-pitched roof, the returning eaves suggest a pediment.
While the Dickinson house retains the basic symmetry of the Lincoln home, it lacks the Greek revival details such as the gable-end suggestion of a pediment and the heavy cornice.
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