Post-Gazette file photo This is the bed that Abraham Lincoln used during a stop in Pittsburgh in 1861 during his trip to Washington, D.C., for his inauguration. Click photo for larger image.

Allegheny County maintenance workers believe they have found a long-lost bed slept in by Abraham Lincoln in Pittsburgh as he made his way to Washington, D.C., for his presidential inauguration.

The Victorian walnut bed was used by Lincoln when he stayed at the former Monongahela House Hotel, Downtown, on Valentine's Day 1861. Lincoln was elected president in 1860, but until the Constitution was changed in 1933, presidents were inaugurated in March.

Donated to the county in 1935, the bed was last documented in a 1959 photograph showing county carpenters removing it from storage. In a 1999 Post-Gazette story, county officials reported that even after an inventory of county property, the bed, said to be priceless, could not be located.

But this week workers believe they discovered the bed in the eaves of a maintenance shed in South Park.

The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has a detailed account of Lincoln's visit on its Web site.

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More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.