Vandalia’s historic sites on display for state’s Doors Open Illinois

By Editor | August 8, 2018 |

Vandalia will join other Illinois community in opening the doors to their historic sites this weekend.

Doors Open Illinois, which is part of the state’s bicentennial celebration, is this Saturday and Sunday, and Vandalia has five sites on the program schedule.
The local sites open to tourists from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday and from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. on Sunday are:
• Vandalia Statehouse – Visitors can meet Abraham Lincoln and some of the first legislators to serve in the building when it served as the state capitol.
Local men who will be portraying the legislators are Jim Brewer, Bill Donaldson, John Hagy, Bill Haselhorst, Todd McKellar, the Rev. Michael Mohr, Cory Rabe and Dale Timmerman.
• Fayette County Museum at 301 W. Main St. – Visitors can view Lincoln items and those used during his time in Vandalia.
• National Road Interpretive Center at 106 S. Fifth St. – Visitors can learn what, when and where Lincoln was on the National Road, called “The Road that Built the Nation.”
• First Presbyterian Church at 1221 W. Fillmore St. – Visitors can see the first bell rung in a Protestant church in Illinois and view the History closet, and can also join the worship service at 9 a.m. on Sunday.
• Little Red Caboose at Fifth and Johnson streets (Saturday only) – Visitors can see what it was like to work on the end of a train in the 1940s, and can learn about the work being done to restore the caboose. They can also learn what the railroad did for Illinois, and what Lincoln did for Central Illinois Railroad.