Air Combat Museum
The Air Combat Museum showcases the role of military aviation with an array of aviation memorabilia, including the gun sight from a Messerschmitt 109 and historical aircraft, including a Beechcraft AT-11 Kansan, used to train bombardiers in World War II; a P-51 Mustang; a Vought F4U-5 Corsair; and a Soko Galeb, Yugoslavia’s first jet.
Air Combat Museum, Capital Airport, 835 Capital Airport Dr., www.aircombatmuseum.org 217- 522-2181. Open 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri. Visitors are welcome anytime during regular hours. Guided and group tours are $20, by appointment only, and may be arranged by calling 217-522-2181.
Camp Butler National Cemetery
One of 14 sites designated national cemeteries by President Abraham Lincoln, Camp Butler was also used to train Union troops and served as a prisoner-of-war camp during the Civil War. Some 800 Confederate soldiers are buried here. So, too, are 39 German military personnel, interred here after unsuccessful efforts to locate their kin after World War II. New to the site is an outside touch-screen kiosk that permits visitors to locate the grave location of soldiers buried at Camp Butler and any national cemetery.
Camp Butler National Cemetery, 5063 Camp Butler Rd., 217-492-4070. www.cem.va.gov/CEM/cems/nchp/campbutler.asp. Office open 7:30 a.m-4 p.m. Mon.-Fri. Closed between noon and 1 p.m. The gate to the cemetery is open daily until sunset.
Dana-Thomas House State Historic Site
In 1902, Susan Lawrence Dana, the socialite daughter of a Springfield industrialist, commissioned architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design a new residence around the existing family home. Trusting in Wright’s genius, Dana spared no expense, and Wright went all-out in what’s considered his first full expression of the Prairie Style. When it was finished in 1904, the $60,000 project was the largest residence Wright had built — 35 rooms on three main levels, encompassing 12,000 square feet of living space. Dana loved to entertain, and her house was designed with that purpose in mind. The grand entrance is theatrical; one enters the house as though walking onto a stage. The three floors contain 16 varying levels.
In the early 1980s, to preserve this architectural gem, the state of Illinois acquired the residence from thenowner Thomas Publishing. The Dana- Thomas House Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes the house, hosts programs and special events. Now restored to its former grandeur, the house is operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.
The house contains the largest collection of Wright furniture and artglass windows in the world. Its