History with ‘Hud’: The Wilmington man who designed the Lincoln Memorial
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Most people have heard of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. But few know the name of the man who designed the famous structure, with even fewer knowing of his connection to Wilmington.
Henry Bacon Jr. was born in Illinois in 1866, but moved to the Cape Fear area in 1876 with his family due to his father getting a local job as an engineer. Bacon spent several years in Wilmington, living in the Savage-Bacon House beginning in 1881, which is now The Rosehill Inn.
Bacon graduated from Wilmington’s Tileston School in 1884. He went on to attend architectural school at the University of Illinois for a year before studying overseas in Europe.
Once returning stateside, Bacon worked jobs at companies in Boston and New York before catching his first big break helping to plan the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. This helped him gain respect and notoriety as an architect.
Bacon soon opened his own architecture firm, Brite and Bacon, in 1897. Shortly after, Bacon was approached by a group which had organized to raise funds to build a monument in Washington, D.C. memorializing Abraham Lincoln, who had been assassinated just over three decades prior.
Bacon began his design for the Lincoln Memorial the same year. Although the full funding to build the project was not secured until years later, Bacon continued to push forward. The Brite and Bacon Partnership dissolved in 1902, partly resulting from Brite’s disagreement over Bacon’s unpaid time he spent on the memorial design.
The final design for the Lincoln Memorial was completed in 1912, with the finishing touches put on in 1922. For his efforts on the project, Bacon won the prestigious Gold Medal of American Institute of Architects.
Bacon died less than two years after the Lincoln Memorial was completed, being transported back to Wilmington to be buried in Oakdale Cemetery with his parents in 1924. As was the case in life, Bacon’s grave marker was created from one of his own designs, constructed from drawings found on his desk after he died.
