McKinley National Memorial, Ohio

William McKinley, the 25th president, was shot and killed in 1901, six months into his second term, in Buffalo, New York, where he was attending the Pan American Exposition. His body was displayed in Washington DC, then brought to Canton, Ohio, where he lived, and where it was reinterred in the McKinley National Memorial in 1907. The McKinley National Memorial was built over two years, using marble from four states, and paid for with private funds, much of it crowd-sourced with small donations from a million schoolchildren across the country. The landscape design of the memorial is meant to resemble both a cross and a sword, with a 575 foot-long reflecting pool and steps as the blade, and the mausoleum on the handle. Later the reflecting pool was filled with soil and grass as a cost-saving measure. The memorial is still privately owned, by the nonprofit McKinley Presidential Library and Museum. The Museum is located at the base of the 108 steps leading up to the Mausoleum. Inside are hands-on science exhibits and displays about the region, as well as a gallery about McKinley, which includes a recreation of the McKinley’s living room in the house in Canton, with full-size animatronic figures.