James A. Garfield and some quality time with my parents...

Well, as many of you, who are my followers know, it's getting close to when I'm going to be going off to college.  In fact I'll be leaving in three days.  Going to probably start getting packed tomorrow, and finish up on Monday.

A few weeks ago we began to discuss what we were going to do before I left for college as a family.  There's just me, my mom, and my dad at the house since everyone else has moved out.  And of course I was out of the house for four years, but came back for the summer before I started college.  So, we tossed around many different ideas.  But we decide we were going to simply go to the lake and spend the day there, and come back home in the evening for dinner, and a movie.  But we woke up this morning and we figured out the day was going to be colder than we expected, and a trip to the beach would probably not be much fun.

So after some debate, we decided we would go to James A. Garfield's house in Mentor, and then go into Willoughby Hills to see a movie.

So below I'm going to post the pictures I took at his house.


Garfield's house from the back as we approached on our tour.


James and Lucretia Garfield's summer bedroom.  They slept on the first floor durring the summer because it was cooler of course.



Another part of their summer bedroom.



A painting of Eliza Ballou, President Garfield's mother.  She lived in the house till her death, and in fact outlived her son, living for 7 years after his assassination.


The parlor in the Garfield house...also known, of course, as the living room.  The Piano was the Garfield's oldest daughter Mary's...they bought it for her on her 13th birthday.



Eliza Ballou's room.  She was naturally very fond of her son.  She had the stained glass window type thing in the corner made in memory of her son when he was assassinated.


Fireplace in the family dining room.  The tiles around the fireplace were hand painted by Mrs. Garfield, and the Garfield children.


The dining room.


A picture of President Garfield in full military uniform.  This was at the top of the stairs, and was exactly how Lucretia had it set up after he died.


Piano in the Garfield library inside the house.  This is actually known as the first presidential memorial library.  It was added onto the house after President Garfield's death, and housed most of his extensive book collection.





All the previous un-captioned pictures are various pictures taken in his presidential memorial library.


The door to the vault in the presidential library.


A small safe inside the vault.


Notice the spider web, and the bug?  During this time spider webs were considered to bring good luck.  




The previous three pictures are of Zeb Rudolphs room in the house.  He was Lucretia's father, and of course James' father-in-law.  He ran the farm durring the presidency, and I believe continued to run it after his assassination.


The Garfield boys room.


Chandelier in the hallway.



The previous two pictures are of James and Lucretia's winter bedroom.


Mary Garfield's room.  Of course, you can see that Mary was definitely spoiled.  She had her own piano, and big bedroom to herself.


Fireplace in Garfield's office.  You may notice it says "In Memoriam" above the fireplace?  This was added after Garfield's death.


Another picture of his office.  The chair was specially designed for Garfield, so that he could sit in it sideways with his back resting against once side, and his legs hanging over the other.


Dad and I standing behind the house after the tour.


Mom and I standing behind the house after the tour.



The front of the house.  Durring his presidential campaign...Garfield often gave speeches while standing on his front porch.


A windmill on the property.

If any of you ever get a chance to see this historical site, I highly recommend it!  It is very educational, and cheep!  The tour only cost $5 per person.  The house is pretty much kept exactly the way it was when the Garfield's lived there, and if you're a history buff, you will definitely enjoy it!

Oh, and I realized...you might want to know where this is right?  It's in Mentor, OH...on the north side of Rt. 20...about a mile east of the Great Lakes Mall.

Comments

Ana said…
These pictures are so fun! It reminds me of walking through Fort Laramie in Wyoming.
That's really awesome historical stuff! I love all the pianos! And the pics with your parents are great!