Growing up in Charlotte, NC, there was a small plaque embedded in a downtown sidewalk. As far as I know, it is still there and hundreds of people must walk across the marker each day without noticing these words underfoot: Jefferson Davis was standing here when informed of Lincoln's death. April 18, 1865
Now, living in the Washington DC metropolitan area, it amazes me how so much history goes unnoticed even here.
New York Ave Presbyterian is one of those such places. Although their meeting house dates to the 1950s, the church has been congregating for more than two hundred years and Abraham Lincoln rented a pew there during his presidency. Despite having a new(ish) building, his darkly stained seat has been preserved by them, wedged out of place and time between white historic-looking benches. And, for me, there is an odd emotion occupying that same space knowing I once stood where Lincoln's political rival learned of his assassination. It makes history tangible and his absence felt.
Trusted to the church's safekeeping downstairs is an original draft of the Emancipation Proclamation with a letter reading as follows: "Fellow citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives, Herewith is the draft of a Bill to compensate any State which may abolish slavery within its limits, the passage of which, substantially as presented, I respectfully, and earnestly recommend. -Abraham Lincoln, July 14, 1862"
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