The Federal Courthouse now stands where the Railroad Hall once was.

150 years ago today, Abraham Lincoln, fresh from his speech at the Cooper Institute, spoke in Providence at the Railroad Hall (a second-floor auditorium in the Union Passenger Depot). Lincoln spoke for 2-1/2 hours, in what was probably a recap of his Cooper Union speech. There's no record of his speech, though it was reviewed in the local papers at the time.

When I heard about the anniversary of Lincoln's speech, I took a disinterested Bear downtown to check out the commemorative plaque on the side of the Federal Courthouse. She didn't believe me when I assured her that she'd remember and appreciate these adventures when she was dragging her own reluctant teen to stare at a plaque on an obscure historical anniversary, but she will. She will.

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Thanks to the Providence Daily Dose for their blog post, or I wouldn't have known about today's historic significance.