Illinois Landmarks Added to National Register of Historic Places

Bryant House

Bement, Piatt County

The Francis E. Bryant House has statewide significance as the meeting place where Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas discussed and finalized the schedule and format of seven planned senatorial debates in each congressional district in Illinois. Though Lincoln lost to Douglas in the senatorial race, these debates – later referred to as “The Great Debates of 1858” – are credited with elevating Lincoln to a national political stage and forming the earliest political foundations for a presidential bid.

The property, purchased by the State of Illinois in 1947, is also a good example of the Hall and Parlor folk building type, which was typical of housing popular at the time of the town’s founding.