Bryant Cottage State Historic Site

Bryant Cottage was built in 1856 as the home of Francis E. Bryant, a local businessman and friend of Stephen A. Douglas.  According to Bryant family tradition, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas met in the parlor of Bryant Cottage to plan their famous series of 1858 debates.  The cottage is maintained with original and period furnishings, providing a glimps of small-town life in the mid-1800s.  Bryant Cottage State Historic Site is managed by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. Francis E. Bryant settled in the village of Bement in 1856.  His was only the seventh family to arrive there.  Bryant opened the village's first bank and store and began merchandizing grain, coal, lumber, and salt.  The aspiring businessman built his four-room cottage, which was thoroughly modern in its time, just one hundred feet from Bement's lifeline, the Great Western Railroad tracks.