No lie, Honest Abe slept here; bedroom authenticity confirmed

A bed, chairs and ornate commode found in a county maintenance shed were used by Abraham Lincoln during an 1861 visit to Pittsburgh, Allegheny County officials and local historians confirmed Friday.

Although at least 10 other presidents and the future King Edward VII of England slept in the bed, "The day (Lincoln) left, people revered that furniture and that room" in the Monongahela House Hotel, said Andy Masich, CEO of the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center in the Strip District.

"Ten thousand to 15,000 people turned out to see Lincoln," Masich said. "They crammed into the lobby of the Monongahela House. He got upstairs and came out on the balcony to give a short speech. He made his formal remarks the next day, remarks that foreshadowed the Civil War."

Masich said the artifacts are "a treasure for our community" and impossible to value. The furniture will remain at the history center until the months-long job of restoration, fumigation and conservation can take place.

Lincoln, on his way from Illinois to Washington for his inauguration, stayed overnight at the historic Downtown hotel Feb. 14, 1861.

The hotel was torn down in 1935 and furniture from Parlor No. 2, the hotel's presidential suite, was donated to a county museum in South Park. The museum closed decades ago. The last known sighting of the furniture was in 1959 when it was photographed at the maintenance shed in South Park. Then it dropped out of sight.

In 1998, county workers and historians searched for the pieces. County Parks Director Andy Baechle said he doesn't know why no one thought to check the attic. But, he said, "It's not a place that you would go by chance. It's way out of the way, in a corner."

The Oct. 26 discovery played out like an adventure novel. A group of county carpenters searching for a leak made their way up to the seldom-used storage room on the second floor, Baechle said. Climbing a narrow staircase, they pushed through a trap door-style entrance at the top and started searching. In a dark corner, the workers spotted the bed, in seven pieces, along with other items wrapped in burlap.

Local historians, including Masich, were called in to authenticate the pieces. So far, the bed, side chair, rocking chair and commode -- with tin bucket intact -- seem to correspond to surviving photographs and other documentation. The other pieces, including a dresser where blueprints of the hotel were discovered, await authentication.

Masich said the history center in 2009 will host a major exhibition of Lincoln memorabilia to coincide with his 200th birthday. The long-lost "Lincoln Bedroom" set, he said, will be an important piece of the exhibit.