James A. Garfield Monument/Tomb - Lakeview Cemetery - Cleveland, Ohio

On April 3, 2015, we traveled to Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio and stopped at the monument of the 20th president of the United States, James A. Garfield.

​Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the James A. Garfield Monument is the final resting place of the 20th President of the United States. The monument is open daily, April 1 through November 19, from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. The building combines Romanesque, Gothic and Byzantine styles of architecture.

Designed by architect George Keller, the Garfield Monument was dedicated on Memorial Day, 1890. The Garfield Monument stands 180 feet tall and is constructed of Berea Sandstone. Around the exterior of the balcony are five, Terra cotta panels by Casper Bubel, with over 110 figures all life size, depicting Garfield’s life and death. The panels include Garfield as a teacher, as a Major General in the Civil War, an orator, taking the oath of office, and laying in state in the rotunda of the Capital in Washington DC.

The Memorial Hall includes rich, gold mosaics, beautifully colored marble, stained glass windows and deep-red granite columns. The stained glass windows (and window like panes) represent the original 13 colonies, plus the state of Ohio, along with panels depicting war and peace. Standing in the main floor is a statue of the President sculpted by Alexander Doyle.

​President Garfield’s casket, draped with an American Flag, is the only Presidential casket on full display where you can actually see the casket. Mrs. Garfield’s casket is also located in the crypt. The remains of their daughter Mary (Molly), and her husband, Joseph Stanley Brown, are in the two urns located in front of the Garfields’ caskets.

​In 1921, a marble staircase was built that would allow visitors to travel down into the tomb without the need of using the tight spiral steps that not only lead downstairs, but upstairs to the second floor and to a balcony outside that will allow you to view the Lake.

​When we first entered the building, the curator was talking with someone about the trap door that was in the floor right inside the foyer.   This trap door was used to lower the coffins downstairs into the tomb area.

A view of downtown Cleveland form the balcony of the monument. You can see Lake Eerie in the horizon.

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