Coburn and Barnum: Creating A Presidential Library

Coburn and Barnum also designed the catafalque under which President Garfield's body was displayed after his assassination in 1881. It was placed on Euclid Avenue.

Cleveland Public Library, Digital Photo Collection.

In the years after President Garfield’s death, a variety of factors moved Mrs. Garfield to create the memorial library in her home. For this monumental project, she selected Cleveland architect Forrest A. Coburn to design the library addition.

Coburn, and his partner Frank Seymour Barnum, initially opened offices in the Hardy Block on Euclid Avenue, and were recognized as one of Cleveland’s best architectural firms. Part of this success was due to their design of the late President Garfield’s catafalque in 1881(pictured below), which brought high fame and notoriety to their firm. Coburn and Barnum became well known for their work in domestic architecture, designing more than twenty houses along Euclid Avenue’s historic Millionaires Row, as well as several buildings for Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University. Although not traditionally considered architects of sacred spaces, Coburn and Barnum were additionally responsible for designing a few of the churches in Cleveland in the late nineteenth century including North Presbyterian Church, First Congregational Church, and St. Paul's Episcopal of East Cleveland.

Although the communications between the firm and Mrs. Garfield are considered mostly face to face meetings, it is the firm’s sketches that demonstrate their influence in placing the library in its unique location at the head of the main staircase in the home. This new wing completed the expansion of the home, which the Garfields purchased in 1879 as a 9 room farmhouse, and expanded to 20 rooms in 1880 utilizing the Cleveland architectural firm Blackburn & Charlot.