Illinois Historic Preservation Agency - History of Agency

History of Agency

The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA) was created by State law in July 1985. The agency's oldest bureau, the Illinois State Historical Library, was created in 1889, but the origins of the agency could be said to date back to the burial of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois, in 1865.

During the 20th century, the state of Illinois acquired and restored a wide variety of historic properties throughout the state. One key asset, the village of Lincoln's New Salem State Historic Site at New Salem (Menard County), Illinois, was reconstructed in the 1930s.

The IHPA continued to grow after its creation in 1985, largely because of continued public interest in Lincoln as the bicentennial of his birth approached in 2009. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, also in Springfield, Illinois, was dedicated in 2005. Unlike most presidential libraries, the Lincoln Library is state-owned.

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