James Garfield National Historic Site

After dealing with having to stay at Lily of the Valley Campground, I headed out to see the sites in this area.  This part of Ohio is on the north west side of Ohio on Lake Erie.  The first place was to James Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor, Ohio, which is the home President Garfield owned.

I actually didn't know much about James Garfield prior to coming here and his life was quite interesting.  The main thing was that during the Republican National Convention in January 1880, he ended up becoming the presidential nominee.  He didn't ask for it - he just got it.  People liked him.  He won the presidential election in November 1880 and inaugurated in March 1881.  However, on July 2nd, 1881, he was shot by Charles Guiteau, a political fanatic and eventually died on September 19th the same year.  He was only 49 years old.  By the time of his death Garfield had been a teacher, college principal, minister, state legislator, lawyer, Civil War general, congressman, US senator-elect and President of the United States!  Not bad for 49 years old!

James Garfield was born in Orange Township, Ohio in 1831, the youngest of four children.  His father died when he was two years old leaving the family destitute.  By 16 years, he took a job towing Ohio canals but after six weeks he contracted malaria and returned home.  In 1858, he married Lucretia Rudolph.  When the Civil War broke out, Garfield was a Lt. Colonel in the 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry and won battles.  This promoted him to general and because of his Civil War service, people knew of him which won him the presidency.  In 1876, he purchased the Dickey Farm where he wanted to teach his boys how to work and "where I can touch the earth and get some strength from it."  They named the farm, Lawnfield.  Since the farm was in disrepair, by 1880, he cleaned it up, and transformed the 1.5 story home to a magnificent 20-room 2.5 story home!  It's stunning inside!

Painting of Garfield during Civil War in the upstairs hallway alcove.

During his presidential campaign, in those days, candidates did not campaign.  The party did that for you, but people came along the railroad to see James Garfield.  They would go to his 160 acre farm home and he would come out and sit on the porch for hours talking with people and giving speeches about his political view.  This was called the "front porch" campaign and future presidential hopefuls then starting campaigning instead of the party campaigning on their behalf.  If I remember correctly from my tour, more than 17,000 people came to his home to hear him speak.  This is a HUGE population of the country at this time.  A train platform was built to bring the people to him where they walked 1.5 miles up the lane to his home from the train station in all types of weather.  I thought the colors of the house painted green with blue shutters and a red roof, front door and window sashing was cute.

James Garfield with his mother, wife and one son on the porch.

After James Garfield's death, Lucretia oversaw the farm added building and brought things to the current standards.  Lucretia died at her winter home in California in 1918 and the family donated the home to the Western Reserve Historical Society and then it was passed to the National Park Service.  Most of the furnishing are original to the home and the Garfield family.  They change the decor depending on the season.  Since I was there in July, the house was still decorated in a June "wedding" theme.

The layout of the farm

The carriage house

The windmill that brought in electricity to the house

How Lucretia brought water into the house - she wanted everything convenient.

Outbuilding

HUGE trees on the farm

The trees were massive!

Our tour guild was very informative and I thoroughly enjoyed the tour.  The home was simply stunning.  I'd have LOVED a home like this with the deep, wide moldings and array of wooden walls and ceilings.  So, let's tour the home!

As we walked through the front door, we entered a large hallway where there was a iron stove under the stairs.  Most interesting.  As I mentioned before nearly every piece is original to the home as it was donated as is to the genealogical society and then the national park service...a rare event, indeed!

From the coat rack (last photo above, we entered into the main greeting room with only a table and chair...but the photos of the stairway was magnificent!

This is the main greeting room.
Through the hallway on the far left led to the kitchen.
The left door entrance is to the dining room.
The right door entrance was to Garfield's mother's bedroom.

The stairs to the left went up to the upper bedrooms.

Wedding invitations of Garfield's children.

Next, we viewed the dining room.  It was beautiful.  This home also had stunning stained glass windows throughout.

The next rooms are Garfield's mother's (Eliza Ballou Garfield) room.  James Garfield adored his mother and cared for her after the death of his father to his dying day.  Eliza Garfield had multiple photos of her son among her things.  She loved James.  For this area, you enter into a large space prior to the bedroom but the park didn't know what it was used for.  I thought it might be a dressing room.  But, here are the bedroom photos.

Here is the parlor adjacent to the mother's bedroom and across from the greeting room.

A view from the stair looking into the Parlor.
Eliza's bedroom is through this room to the left.

Next, we'll go upstairs.  I loved the stairs in this home!  The carvings were wonderful and now, you'll start noticing that many of the ceilings have wood on them.

From here, we'll go into Garfield's study.  It was a HUGE room!  Check out the ceiling!  Simply AMAZING!

Tucked in the corner of the room by his desk, there was a secret room!

James Garfield's Funeral program and casket wreath.

From here, we'll see some bedrooms.  Room 1.  Notice the quilt, and rugs.  Every room was wallpapered.

Room 2

Room 3

Room 4

One of the most unique things about Garfield was that in his personal office, he loved to sit and read.  This chair he had designed because he LOVED to hang his leg over the arm of the chair when he read.  He would have fit in well in our time!

And, here's the upstairs hallways leading to the front entry way stairs. 

This is the front stairs heading down to the front door.
We didn't use these stairs...only the back stairs.

And a different view of the back hallway stairs we previously came up.

In the kitchen area, there were no furnishing available, but there were a few pieces of artifacts.

Garfield's Campaign Poster

Garfield's Family
Mother, Wife, Father - Top Row
5 Children - Bottom Row

The wallpaper was tediously duplicated as it would have looked during his time period.

Hope you enjoyed the tour.  It was a lot of fun!  The visitor center was also quite nice as well as other decor around the home.  There was a lot to enjoy here.