Good Fences...

The fence around James A. Garfield NHS was replaced last fall, and the front part, along Mentor Avenue, will be painted white this spring. We don’t know how many different kinds of fencing Garfield had on his farm, but pictures of the front of the house show how it changed during the presidential campaign year of 1880.

A picture of the house c. 1879, before the major expansion (right). The fence has four horizontal rails near the house, just three further west. There is no gate.

By early summer 1880 the house has been enlarged, and a wide gate with vertical pickets has been added, leading to a welcoming driveway.

On the east side you can see that the narrower four plank fence right in front of the house becomes three wider boards.

By late summer a new vertical picket fence, painted a crisp white, stretched the width of Garfield’s farm facing the road. Soon that view will greet visitors again.

James and Lucretia Garfield’s home underwent an astounding transformation in 1880, as the before and after to the right shows. One of the final projects, envisioned with the addition of the picket gate to the west of the house, was the new, sophisticated white picket fence. It was completed just in time to great the flood of visitors who came near the end of the presidential campaign. To learn more about the Garfield home and grounds you can go to The Front Porch Campaign of 1880 (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov).