The Old State Capitol building (which housed the Legislature, Governor, and State Supreme Court) is closely associated with Abraham Lincoln's Springfield years. As described on the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency web site:
"[Lincoln] drew pay warrants in the auditor's office, researched election returns in the secretary of state's office, and used both the state library and the supreme court library to prepare speeches and legal briefs. Friends recalled that he especially enjoyed the story swapping and game playing that took place in the clubby atmosphere of the court library and clerk's office.
| "It is a portentious, and a thing of state That here at midnight, in our little town A mourning figure walks, and will not rest, Near the old court-house pacing up and down, ... A bronzed, lank man! His suit of ancient black, A famous high top-hat and plain worn shawl Make him the quaint great figure that men love, The prairie-lawyer, master of us all. ... from "Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight (In Springfield, Illinois)" by Vachel Lindsay, written in 1914.
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Status of building: Open to the public as an historic site. Interestingly, as explained on the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency web site, the old State Capitol "was completely dismantled in 1966, and the exterior stone was stored until the walls were rebuilt in 1968-69. Below the recreated capitol, architects provided for a parking ramp and facilities for the Illinois State Historical Library. The Old State Capitol was rededicated November 15, 1969."
Attorney Lincoln did some of his most important and precedent-setting legal work in the state supreme court, pleading at least 243 cases in the court's first-floor chambers. ... On June 16, 1858, Lincoln began his campaign for the United States Senate against Stephen Douglas by delivering his memorable "House Divided" speech to the Republican State Convention meeting in Representatives Hall."