Lawnfield (Mentor, OH), Pt. 2

As I mentioned on this blog yesterday, I recently visited Lawnfield, the home of President James A. Garfield, in Mentor, Ohio, and enjoyed a brief tour with my brother Larry. After seeing most of the first floor, we ascended the staircase from the first-floor reception room to the "Memorial Landing," so called because it memorializes the slain president.
The home houses the first presidential library in history, assembled and established after the president's death by his wife, Lucretia. In the second-floor library is a striking bust of the president, one of numerous images of the man throughout the house.
Lucretia also added a vault off the library, where (working at the desk in the photo below) she painstakingly went through the president's papers--among many efforts she made to preserve his legacy, though he was only in office 200 days.
The bedroom pictured below was, I think, that of the president and Lucretia's daughter Mary.
The president loved to work in his study in the home (below), which featured secret compartments in the desk and a unique chair.
The chair was made especially for Garfield, who liked to read with one leg draped over the side of a chair--so this one was made with one side higher than the other for that reason.
After the president's death, private donations of more than $300,000 were made by the American public, providing security for Lucretia and the means for her to preserve and improve this home in a manner she thought befitted a presidential home. Several rooms were added to make a total of twenty-nine, and those rooms spared no expense, down to the elegant detail in the door hinges, below:
Tomorrow on this blog, I'll post one more time on this visit, which (though short) was delightful.