James A. Garfield Monument — Attraction in Cleveland

After visiting the James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Nearby Mentor, I made the short drive down to Lakeview Cemetery to visit the James A. Garfield Memorial, which is the final resting place of President Garfield, his wife and the cremains of two of their children. The Garfield Memorial is one of the largest Presidential tomb. I think only the Tomb of President Ulysses S. Grant is Bigger. To say that the Garfield Memorial is impressive would be an understatement. The first thing you see when entering the memorial is the large marble statue of President Garfield that stand in the beautiful rotunda. The artwork in the rotunda is amazing. After spending some time in the rotunda, I made my way down the narrow spiral stairs to the memorial tomb. Resting her are the coffins containing the mortal remains of President Garfield and His wife Lucretia. One of the volunteers here informed visitors that these are the original coffins, and they have never been buried. President Garfield’s casket is covered with the American Flag. Visitors can walk completely around the circular tomb to see the caskets at every angle. My final stop was on the monument’s observation deck. Once again you access the observation deck by climbing a set of narrow spiral stairs from the center rotunda. Once on top of the memorial visitors are afforded a grand view of the Cleveland Skyline and Lake Erie. This is an amazing monument in every sense and the volunteers are very helpful and informative. I would encourage anyone in the Cleveland area to make time to visit this...

Breathtaking and unexpected architecture. I hadn't looked at any serious pictures before this visit, but I had been to more than twenty presidential graves ahead of it, so I wasn't sure what I'd see. If anything, Garfield's term being so short and relatively insignificant, I was looking for a modest headstone, something reasonable, which isn't what I came upon. This was a stunning, hidden gem that posed no great impediments to viewing, not like the mecca of Lincoln's grave in Illinois, where people crowd the area and stand in lines to see his tomb. Even McKinley's grave, down in Canton, serves as a walking and running space for people who barely seem to notice, but who fill up the space with sweaty, busy bodies. Here, at Garfield's tomb, there were no other people besides myself, just a full view of the most grand memorial of all the presidents I've ever been to see, one of our four...

My girlfriend and I visited the President James A. Garfield Memorial on 29 May. The memorial was designed by George Keller with exterior reliefs by Caspar Buberl. It is the final resting place for the 20th President of the U.S., who served a mere 6 months in office before Charles Guiteau assassinated him as revenge for an imagined political debt. Garfield died in Elberon, NJ and was laid to rest at the highest point in this cemetery. Construction on the memorial began in October 1885 and it was dedicated in May 1890. The President and his widow, Lucretia Garfield, lie in the crypt while the ashes of his daughter Mary Garfield Stanley-Brown and son-in-law Joseph Stanley Brown are kept in urns next to them in the crypt. It was a stunning building to visit and we happened to arrive during the Memorial Day celebrations, which saw the building and surrounding lawn decked out in...