On Sunday, August 26, 2018 – “Constitution Day in Illinois” – together with the Illinois Bicentennial, the city of Springfield and the Illinois REALTORS®, we will officially dedicate Bicentennial Plaza, a REALTOR® Community Partnership. This event is a Signature Legacy Event of the Illinois Bicentennial.

Bicentennial Plaza is a new pedestrian walkway linking the Lincoln Home National Historic Site to the east with the Governor’s Mansion and Capitol Complex to the west along the Jackson Street corridor in historic downtown Springfield. The Plaza is dedicated to Abraham Lincoln’s vision for America as a country with opportunity and equality for all.

Program

3:15 p.m. to 5 p.m.

• University of Illinois Marching Illini performance including “The Star Spangled Banner.” The marching band is celebrating its 150th anniversary year.
• Remarks:
  • Governor Bruce Rauner and First Lady Diana Rauner
  • Mayor Jim Langfelder, City of Springfield
  • Illinois REALTORS President Matt Difanis
  • Illinois Bicentennial Commissioner Richard Mark, President of Ameren
• “Illinois” the Official State Song sung by Springfield’s own Damien Kaplan
• Ceremonial cake-cutting by the family owned, Chicago-based Eli’s Cheesecake Company
•  4:15 – 5:00 p.m. the Ravinia Jazz Scholars Alumni Band will perform the works of music legend and jazz pianist Willie Pickens (1931-2017)

The program is free and open to the public.

Bicentennial Plaza features 16 interpretive panels presenting the people, places and events that tie to the struggle to achieve President Lincoln’s vision for America as a land of equal opportunity for all. They include Frederick Douglass, who spoke in Springfield on the anniversary of Lincoln’s death; Francis Gage, who fought for women’s suffrage, and Anderson Holman, a Springfield developer who provided badly needed affordable housing. At the west end of the Plaza stands a monument commemorating the 50th anniversary of the federal Fair Housing Act, signed into law on April 11, 1968.

Thank you to our Major Sponsors: