General Description
This two-and-a-half-story building was constructed as the home of George Washington Riggs, co-founder of the Riggs National Bank. The house served as the center of Riggs's expansive country retreat until 1851, when the property was sold to the newly established Military Asylum as the site of its Washington Branch. It was the first building on the property occupied in 1851 by the Military Asylum. Throughout its history, the building served as a barracks, hospital, and residence for the Homes band. It also served in the twentieth century as the initial housing for the institutions first female employees.
The building also is significant for its historic association with President Abraham Lincoln and his family, who are believed to have resided in the dwelling during three of the summers Lincoln was in office (1862-1864). The Lincolns were in residence at the Home from June 13th until early November in 1862. The following year, they stayed four-and-a-half months. In 1864, the familys retreat to the Home extended from early June until sometime after mid-October. President Lincoln further developed his emancipation policy and worked on the Emancipation Proclamation while residing at the Home in the summer of 1862.
The Lincoln family is believed to have occupied the Riggs Cottage, which was lived in by the Acting Governor of the Board in 1861, Thomas L. Alexander. However, the long-held belief that the Lincolns occupied the same cottage each summer has recently been questioned. Matthew Pinsker states in Lincolns Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers Home that in Benjamin Frenchs request to the chairman of the House appropriations committee for funding he indicated that, "The house heretofore occupied by President Lincoln has, since last summer, been taken by some other person, & [the President] has been put to the expense of preparing another house for his own private residence there." The allocated funding was used to hire John Alexander, a local upholsterer, who provided "repairs and refitting & furnishing" to the Riggs Cottage. Accounts from visitors and reporters in 1862 and 1863 also describe the physical details of Lincolns residence, descriptions that do not fit the photographic evidence from this period or the architectural and material composition of the Riggs Cottage as recently documented by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. One such source is the July 4, 1863 dispatch of Sacramento Daily Union reporter, Noah Brooks, who was a family friend of the Lincolns and was to serve as personal secretary of the President during his second term. Brooks wrote, "Near the central building are several two-story cottages, built of stone, in the Gothic style, and occupied by the Surgeon in charge, the Adjutant General and other functionaries, and one is occupied during the Summer by the President and family." Pinsker points to another significant source - the Charles Magnus lithograph, published in 1868. The caption at the bottom of the print identifies Quarters One as the "Presidents Villa" and the Riggs Cottage as the "Governors House." However, the only photographic image of the Soldiers Home in the possession of Mary Lincoln was that of the Riggs Cottage, and other photographs from the nineteenth century archived at the Library of Congress describe the Riggs Cottage as Lincolns residence. Although research into the occupancy of Riggs Cottage continues, it has been determined that the Lincoln family is known to have lived in the Riggs Cottage in the summer of 1864.
President Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893, in office 1877-1881) accepted the invitation of the Board of Commissioners to summer at the Soldiers Home. The invitation specifically noted the first family was requested to occupy Riggs Cottage. Chester A. Arthur (1829-1886, in office 1881 to 1885), who assumed the presidency upon the death of James A. Garfield in September 1881, moved his family to the Soldiers Home in the Fall of 1882, while the White House was being renovated. In preparation for the stay, the Board of Commissioners ordered the Governor "to take measures to have the changes in the fire-places, the removal of the closets, and the painting and graining promptly done, and to keep a special account of the cost." The Governor was also requested to make sure the necessary fire wood for heating the house was supplied "from the timber upon the Home ground, so far as can be done without detriment to the property." Accordingly George W. Williamson of Washington, D.C. was employed to serve as carpenter and prepare the Riggs Cottage for the first family. Williamson was to receive $75 per month. The minutes from October 11, 1882, discuss furnishing the "mansion" for the President with a new Baltimore sideboard and andirons for the fireplaces.
In 1889, the cottage was renamed in honor of Brevet Major General Robert Anderson, who commanded Fort Sumter at the outbreak of the Civil War.
The cottage is illustrative of the Gothic Revival style, which was popular from about 1840 until 1890, with wood detailing, open gables adorned with sawn bargeboard and pinnacles, asymmetrical floor plan, one-story porch with sawn detailing, canted bay window with hood molding, chimneys with diamond-shaped shafts, and chimneys with circular pots. The brick walls of the Gothic-inspired structure were clad in stucco prior to 1897. The design was based, in part, on drawings by architect John Skirving and on a house owned by a "Mr. McClelland." The dwelling is currently undergoing preservation by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and will open to the public as a museum.

Chapel Woods (is contained within / contains)

Central Grounds (is contained within / contains)

William H. Degges (Designer, was designed by / designed)

Abraham Lincoln (Individual, was occupied by / occupied)

George Washington Riggs (Individual, was owned by / owned)

Robert Anderson (Individual, is related to (general))

Chester A. Arthur (Individual, was occupied by / occupied)

Rutherford B. Hayes (Individual, was occupied by / occupied)

John Skirving (Designer, was designed by / designed)