Lawnfield, Ohio

Over the years Garfield expanded the house from 9 to 20 rooms.

Born in a log cabin near Cleveland, James Garfield, who would later become the 20^th president of the USA, moved into this house in Mentor, Ohio, 20 miles up the lake shore from Cleveland, in 1876. This is the property Garfield became most associated with, as here he campaigned for the presidency in 1880. Over the years Garfield expanded the house from 9 to 20 rooms, and turned a small outbuilding into his campaign headquarters. He left to assume the Executive Office in 1881, and never returned to Lawnfield. Two months into his presidency, in 1881, Garfield was shot in the back by an assassin, and died two months later, likely due to infections created by doctors in the days before the importance of sterilization was understood. Lawnfield is now managed by the National Park Service, which has a visitor center on the site, with life-size dioramas and other displays about his presidency.