Lot Flannery was an Irish-American sculptor who knew President Abraham Lincoln personally and was at Ford’s Theatre the night of the assassination. Shortly after Lincoln’s death, a memorial honoring the slain president was raised in Washington and the need for a grander, more permanent monument was needed. Many designs were submitted to the monument planning committee, but Flannery’s model was unanimously chosen. The memorial was dedicated on April 15, 1868. Flannery’s statue is the only statue of Lincoln created by someone who knew him. The project petered out for lack of funds.

In 1910, the project for a Lincoln Memorial was revived again. Congress approved a bill to start construction and it was passed in 1910. In February 1914 the Ground Breaking Ceremony took place. By the end of the year, much of the foundation has been completed.

On Lincoln’s 106th Birthday – February 12, 1915 the Cornerstone of the future Lincoln Memorial designed by Henry Bacon, after ancient Greek temples, has been laid with great ceremony. Though there is very little but concrete bases to show for it, it promises to be a grand memorial for a president who was alive only 50 years ago and a large majority of the US population had lived when he was in office.

https://awesometalks.wordpress.com/2009/03/21/the-lincoln-memorial-construction-dedication-photographs/