James A. Garfield National Historic Site Cultural Landscape

James A. Garfield Home and landscape.

NPS

Introduction

In 1880, thousands of visitors and reporters traveled to Congressman and presidential candidate James A. Garfield’s Mentor, Ohio farm to hear him deliver campaign speeches from his porch. They trampled grass, camped on the grounds, and even helped themselves to farm crops. His campaign methods proved effective, and the Republican Garfield defeated Democratic candidate General Winfield Scott Hancock for election as the twentieth President of United States. The farm supported Garfield’s identity as a “gentleman farmer” and his opposition to big city political corruption.

A lithographic depiction of Lawnfield, the home of James A. Garfield in Mentor, Ohio, ca. 1881.

Library of Congress

The Garfield farm, nicknamed “Lawnfield,” remains significant for its association with President Garfield and its distinctive design. It is historically significant from 1886 to 1899, during the “period of transition,” in which major changes occurred at the property. After President Garfield’s assassination in 1881, his widow, Lucretia Rudolph Garfield, made many improvements to the buildings and landscape. James A. Garfield National Historic Site was authorized on December 28, 1980. The NPS worked with the Western Reserve Historical Society of Cleveland, Ohio to continue preservation and interpretation efforts until 2008.

Landscape Description

The James A. Garfield National Historic Site's cultural landscape occupies 7.8 acres in Mentor, Ohio. The cultural landscape contains eight extant buildings from the period of significance, including the main home, tenant house, carriage barn, and windmill. The building arrangement mirrors the narrow north/south orientation of the property. The main residence and stylistic elements sit to the south separate from the northern agrarian structures. The main home exemplifies several different architectural styles including Victorian Gothic, Queen Anne, and Federal Revival.

The original 160 acre property contained crop fields, pastures, and an orchard. Trees that relate to the period of significance included sugar maples, Cornelian cherry, black locust, white birch, mulberry, and dogwood, among others. Several large historic trees are clustered around the home and throughout the property. An orchard that is representative of the historic type is planted in the northwest corner of the property. Small scale features include a watering trough, hitching post, and carriage mounting step.

Aerial view looking west of Mentor, Ohio and Lawnfield, ca. 1880, showing the rural character of the surroundings. The current 8-acre site, outlined in red in the bottom middle of this painting, represents a small portion of the historic farm of 1880 (outlined in yellow).

NPS / Harpers Ferry Center Art Collection

Historic Use

The Garfield family purchased the farm in 1876. By then, James Garfield had been in Congress for thirteen years. Before politics, Garfield had been a teacher, state senator, and Union army general. He believed a farm would contribute to his children’s upbringing, as it had his own. Farming could also provide additional income and the Garfields made many improvements to support productivity. In the 1870s, they grew wheat, oat, barley, buckwheat, corn, rye, and hay grasses. Livestock included swine, horses, cows, and poultry.

When not working as the representative of Ohio's nineteenth congressional district, Garfield attended to the farm. He experimented with soil amendments and hydrological innovations. James Garfield was interested in ram technology to deliver water for the household and to irrigate fields. A bog existed onsite and was separated from the rest of the site by an “ancient shoreline” or slight rise in the topography.

What is a ram?

A ram was a machine that pumped water into a cistern or other holding device by making use of a stream's own power. Water flowed through a collection pipe that was placed in a ditch, brook, or bog, and the force of the stream operated a valve. This increased water and air pressure within a metal globe, which was periodically and forcefully released via a valve, operating the ram and delivering water to its destination. 

While ram technology was not new, many thousands of such engines were used on American farms around this time and were also known as "water engines." Unfortunately for the Garfields, the ram became ineffective when the water supply dropped. Other challenges were were maintaining the length of pipe that stretched from the ram to the house and enduring the continued loud clicking of the valve.

Campaign office at Lawnfield.

Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress

Tracks of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad ran through the property's northern end. In 1880, thousands came to Mentor, Ohio to participate in James Garfield's "front porch" presidential campaign and rode on these tracks right onto the candidate's farm, exiting the train and walking up the path to the home. Crowds varied in size from a few dozen to a thousand or more. Reporters from the New York Herald spent a week at the farm. The campaign proved successful and Garfield won a narrow popular vote victory over Hancock. This was the birthplace of the "front porch" presidential campaign, later used by winning candidates like Benjamin Harrison and William McKinley.

The original windmill was built in 1894. It was removed from the stone pumphouse in 1930 and reconstructed by the NPS in 1998.

NPS

President Garfield served less than four months before being shot by a deranged assassin on July 2, 1881. He survived the shooting, only to endure horrendous treatment from his doctors. Garfield died of infection (which his doctors introduced into his body) on September 19, 1881, more than two months after the shooting. After his death, Lucretia Rudolph Garfield, their children, and other family members sought to honor his memory and maintain the property. They relocated several buildings during this “period of transition” to their current placement to provide a more suburban feel to the front of the property.

Mrs. Garfield added a memorial library to the home in 1885-86. Today, that library is recognized as the birthplace of the presidential library idea. The Romanesque-style windmill, built in the early 1890s, served as both an aesthetic and functional feature. It provided water to the house and farm. The family also commissioned J. Wilkinson Elliot, a landscape architect out of Pittsburgh, to create a unified landscape design.

Portions of the property passed from Mrs. Garfield to her children and developers. The Western Reserve Historical Society commenced acquisition, preservation, and interpretation efforts in the late 1930s. On December 28, 1980 Congress authorized the establishment of James A. Garfield National Historic Site.

Today, visitors can experience the James A. Garfield National Historic Site to better understand the life of the president and his interest in agrarian pursuits. The landscape also remains significant for its association with nineteenth century agriculture and deliberate landscape design.

Documentation of the pumphouse and windmill base prior to reconstruction.

Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress

Quick Facts

• Landscape Type: Historic Site
• National Register Significance Level: National
• National Register Significance Criteria: B, C
• Period of Significance: 1886-1899
• National Historic Landmark

Landscape Links

• Lawnfield Cultural Landscape Report, James A. Garfield National Historic Site (1994)
• Lawnfield Historic Structure Report, James A. Garfield National Historic Site (1991)
• National Register of Historic Places: "Lawnfield," James A. Garfield Estate
• Library of Congress: HABS/HAER/HALS Documentation
• James A. Garfield Papers, Library of Congress
• More about NPS Cultural Landscapes

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