The James A. Garfield Memorial is the final resting place of assassinated President James A. Garfield, located in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio. The memorial, which began construction in October 1885 and was dedicated on May 30, 1890, exhibits a combination of Byzantine, Gothic, and Romanesque Revival architectural styles. Garfield, former First LadyLucretia Garfield, and two other members of the Garfield family are entombed in the crypt level of the monument.
President James A. Garfield, a resident of nearby Mentor, Ohio, was shot in Washington, D.C., on July 2, 1881. He died on September 19, 1881. Garfield himself had expressed the wish to be buried at Lake View Cemetery,[2][3][4] and the cemetery offered a burial site free of charge to his widow, Lucretia Garfield.[5][a]
Mrs. Garfield agreed to bury her husband at Lake View.[7] Even before Garfield's funeral, plans were laid by his friends and admirers for a grand tomb to be erected at a high point in the cemetery.[8]
The Garfield Memorial Committee selected the highest point in the cemetery in June 1883 for the president's final resting place.[9] Lake View Cemetery built a road around the memorial in early 1885 and began work on cutting a road from the Euclid Gate to the memorial site later that fall. The cemetery also began work on making improvements to the landscape, water, and drainage around the site.[10]
Design and construction
Statue of James A. Garfield inside the memorial
The tomb was designed by architect George Keller[11] in the Byzantine, Gothic, and Romanesque Revival styles.[12] All the stone for the monument came from the quarries of the Cleveland Stone Company, and was quarried locally.[13] The exterior reliefs, which depict scenes from Garfield's life,[11] were done by Caspar Buberl. Its cost, $135,000 ($4,600,000 in 2023 dollars), was funded entirely through private donations.[14] Part of the memorial's funding came from pennies sent in by children throughout the country.[15]
The round tower is 50 feet (15 m) in diameter and 180 feet (55 m) high.[16] Around the exterior of the balcony are five terra cotta panels with over 110 life size figures depicting Garfield's life and death.[17]
Construction on the memorial began on October 6, 1885,[18] and it was dedicated on May 30, 1890.[19]
The caskets of the President and Lucretia Garfield lie in a crypt on full display beneath the memorial, along with the ashes of their daughter (Mary "Mollie" Garfield Stanley-Brown [1867–1947]) and son-in-law Joseph Stanley Brown.[16] Lucretia Garfield died on March 13, 1918, and was interred in the Garfield Memorial on March 21.[20]
Operational history
Tomb of James and Lucretia Garfield
Since the Garfield Memorial was private, the committee overseeing its operation charged an entry fee of 10 cents per person to defray its maintenance costs.[6]
In late October 1923, the Garfield National Monument Association turned the Garfield Memorial over to Lake View Cemetery. Most of the Monument Association's members had died, and its charter did not permit for a self-perpetuating board. After accepting title to the memorial and its land, Lake View Cemetery immediately ended the practice of charging a 10 cent ($2 in 2023 dollars) admission fee to the memorial.[21] Lake View also began cleaning, repairing, and rehabilitating the memorial.[21][22]
Lake View Cemetery spent $5 million in 2016 and 2017 conserving, repairing, and upgrading the memorial's structural elements. This included reinforcing beams and columns in the basement.[23]
In 2019, the cemetery began a multi-million-dollar project to clean the exterior and repoint any damaged or missing mortar.[23] It is the first time in the memorial's history that the exterior has been cleaned.[12]
The memorial closes every winter on November 19 (President Garfield's birthday) and reopens in April.[23]
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