A cottage three miles from the White House in which Abraham Lincoln likely paced the floors while contemplating the end of slavery was until now largely unknown to the public.

Few District-area residents knew it was still standing on the grounds of the Armed Forces Retirement Home, and tourists searching for Lincoln sites in the nation's capital were far more likely to stop at the Lincoln Memorial or Ford's Theatre, where the 16th U.S. president was assassinated.

But in the late 1990s, the house was "rediscovered" by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In 2000, President Clinton declared it a national monument.