Asahel Gridley Home
Mid-block Grove street, behind red-brick apartment complex with cast iron fence and stone gateposts
Completed in 1859, the Gridley mansion was once the most expensive residence in Bloomington. In the mid 1930s, an apartment building known as "The Oaks" was built in front of the mansion. The old Gridley home is still visible behind the apartment building, though it has undergone several significant alterations since Lincoln's day. Gridley was an entrepreneur, lawyer, and Illinois Central Railroad land agent who played a leading role in the development of Bloomington and McLean County. During his long association with the Eighth Circuit, Lincoln argued cases for and against Gridley.
Asahel Gridley