Mary Todd's Girlhood Home, Where Lincoln Once Spent Three Weeks
A guided hour through the Lexington house Mary Todd moved into at thirteen, told from her girlhood to her widowhood.
Mary Todd was thirteen when her family moved into this brick house on West Main Street in 1832. She lived here until 1839, then left for Springfield, Illinois, where she met and married Abraham Lincoln. The building itself went up between 1803 and 1806 as an inn.
In 1977 it opened as the first house museum in the country to honor a first lady. The rooms hold period furniture, family portraits and pieces that belonged to the Todds and the Lincolns, among them a pair of Meissen porcelain perfume jars that were hers. A staff guide takes you through it.
The house notes that the guided tour often sells out. On the booking page an adult ticket is USD 20 and a youth ticket is USD 10, and every booking needs at least one adult. Confirmation is instant, and a phone or paper ticket both work.
Mary Todd Lincoln House Guided Tour TicketOne hour inside Mary Todd Lincoln's girlhood home on West Main Street with a staff guide, weekdays at 3:00 PM, from USD 20.www.viator.comOn the Road to Congress, the Lincolns Stopped Here
In November 1847 Mary brought her husband here for a three-week stay. The Lincolns were on their way to Washington, where Abraham was about to serve his first and only term in Congress. The house says he would have been entertained in the family parlor and the dining room beside it.
The formal twin parlors are where the Todds received Henry Clay, the Kentucky statesman Lincoln called his "beau ideal" of a politician. One painting in the front parlor is an original: Daniel Huntington's 1864 portrait of Mary, made while she was first lady.
Twenty-One Steps Up to the Bedrooms
Upstairs is the parents' bedroom, where Mary's stepmother Betsy gave birth to five of her nine children. Robert Todd's two marriages produced sixteen children in all, and Mary was one of them. The guest bedroom covers the years after 1865: prints of the night at Ford's Theatre hang there, with things from Mary's life as a widow.
The second floor is twenty-one steps up and is not wheelchair accessible. A lift reaches the first floor, but it runs on a key, and staff ask you to call 859-233-9999 to arrange it. For anyone who stays downstairs, there is a photo album of the upstairs rooms.
The People Who Did the Work
Census and tax records the museum has gone through put an average of five enslaved people in the Todd household between 1820 and 1849, the weeks of Lincoln's visit included. They cooked, cleaned, drove the carriages and looked after the children. The house says household chores were done in the pantry.
Some of them have names on record. Chaney is remembered as the cook. Jane Sanders married her husband Lewis at the Todd home in 1835, and for their first twenty years of marriage the two lived apart. In 1849 a man named William tried to escape. Robert Todd had him sold.
Before You Book
The house recommends the guided hour for ages twelve and up. It is a lecture-style tour, made for people who like listening in a group. The booking page sells tickets for adults and youth (ages 6–17); children under six do not need a paid ticket on the booking page, though the historic house's stairs and quiet lecture format make it best suited for older kids.
- Photography without a flash is welcome. Video and audio recording are not.
- Service animals on a harness or leash are allowed inside.
- Cancel at least 24 hours before the start for a full refund. Inside 24 hours there is no refund.
- The booking page lists the tour as wheelchair and stroller accessible, but the museum's actual setup is more restrictive: the second floor has 21 steps with no elevator, and only the ground floor is accessible via a keyed lift.
📍 578 West Main Street, Lexington.
The museum's lot is behind the house, reached by Tucker Street, which looks like an alley off Main Street. The Main Street Baptist Church lot next door gives museum visitors two free hours, with the validation ticket handed out at check-in. Main Street also has meters.
The ticket includes a self-guided walking tour of downtown Lexington, a way to keep the afternoon going on foot.