Springfield's Lincoln Home wants to build archives

SPRINGFIELD - The Lincoln Home Historic Site Room is running out of storage space for thousands of artifacts and documents and administrators say they want the federal government to build an archives center at the Springfield site.

"It's very crowded," Lincoln Home curator Susan Haake told The State Journal-Register. "We are packed to the gills as far as paper documents."

Administrators said they'll ask for $4.5 million to build a territorial archives center that would house more than 324,000 documents and artifacts, including 7,000 pieces from the Lincoln era. Those items include paperwork, but also furniture, quilts and other items.

Another 100,000 documents from the Lincoln home and other pieces are housed at the Midwest Archeological Center in Lincoln, Nebraska.

"It would be a climate-controlled, up-to-date storage facility," said site Superintendent Dale Phillips. He said the park is out of space after more than four decades of storing U.S. Park Service documents and Lincoln artifacts.

Phillips said the facility also would house materials from other national parks. He said this is the first time the Lincoln Home has asked to become a territorial archive facility. He said there is strong competition with other national park system projects for limited funds.

A 2012 long-term management plan for the park included a recommendation for a territorial archives center.