Road Trip! Cleveland - President Garfield National Historic Site, Art, Music, & Hiking!
I lived in Cleveland for one year for my first job out of college with PPOM and I had a great time there - Cleveland is a very cool city and I have not spent a lot of time there since. I’ve visited a few times for various reasons on business or to stop at the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame with Ally and the kids on a road trip etc… But there is a lot to see in Cleveland that I still had yet to do and they were on my list. So I grabbed my son Tony and we went for two days - it’s only 2 1/2 hours from the Detroit suburbs where we live, so we left early Sunday morning and returned late Monday night. You could say we hit history, art, music, and nature!
President Garfield National Historic Site
I believe James Garfield would have gone on to be a GREAT president if he hadn’t died tragically from an assassination attempt that ultimately took his life largely due to the disastrous treatment he received. He was only 49. But he certainly made an impact in his life and I was excited to get to Lawnfield - his home in Mentor, Ohio which is a national historic site and really well preserved. We had the tour to ourselves and just one other gentleman from Alexandria, VA who had visited Spiegel Grove (Rutherford B. Hayes’ home) in Fremont the day before and was heading down to Marion to see President Harding’s home that day after Garfield’s! Garfield’s home was the site of the first “front porch campaign” where people would come to the house to hear him speak during the campaign. Presidents weren’t expected to get involved in campaigns on their own behalf back then so they didn’t travel around giving speeches.
He bought this home in 1876 and immediately set about adding on to it and his wife Lucretia (“Crete” as he called her) added even more after Garfield died including the first library and vault to hold all of his books and papers. Let’s take a look at a few photos!
A couple additional notes here… I was able to see into the campaign office - there are shelves of books and a table with the telegraph receiver on it. Unfortunately I was not able to get good photos through the windows because of the glare… Lighting was an issue at times in the house as well such as on the photo of the painting of a seated Garfield as a Civil War general.
I also love the painting of Garfield’s heroic ride at Chickamauga that was made well after his death. The description next to it reads “Ride to Glory - General Garfield At Chickamauga On September 20, 1863 at the battle of Chickamauga, Brigadier General James A. Garfield made his famous ride through enemy fire. Despite his horse being shot and his orderly killed, Garfield reached General George Thomas and advised him on the status of the Union Army. For his bravery, Garfield won a promotion to Major General. This original work was created by artist Amy Lindenberger. A native of northeast Ohio, Ms. Lindenberger owns and operates The Civil War Fine Art Gallery & Studio in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. She is known for her Beyond The Battlefield series of paintings, inspired by Civil War soldiers and their families. Ride to Glory was commissioned exclusively for the James A. Garfield National Historic Site. This painting has been done in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.” More on Garfield’s ride and his role at Chickamauga can be found at this link. There’s also a really nice virtual tour of the home at this link.
Cleveland Museum of art & Rock Hall
So I know this is a history blog and not an art or music blog but I’m just including a couple quick photos that I found interesting to help give the flavor of the trip as a whole… And I have to say Tony and I were both blown away by the Cleveland Museum of Art. Wow - what a collection… here are a few of my favorites with the corresponding descriptions, and as for the Rock Hall it’s always fun to check out even if many of the nominees as well as the omissions are a joke.
Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame
I didn’t take many photos here but the 50 years of Hip Hop exhibit was pretty cool…
Oh… and we took a little drive to see a piece of my personal history - the building I lived in on Van Aken Blvd. in Shaker Heights during my year in Cleveland back in 1994. The building is the same but I barely recognized Shaker Heights. It’s even nicer than when I lived there and it was pretty nice back then.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Wow! I was really impressed by the sites in this relatively new National Park which was not yet one when I lived in Cleveland. It wasn’t until 2000 that it was designated a National Park and it’s really a happy story since the area and the Cuyahoga River was such a mess due to factory waste and sewage in the 1950’s and 1960’s - to the point that the river actually burned. We went on a couple beautiful hikes and the one to Blue Hen falls in particular was actually quite challenging but with a spectacular payoff. Plenty to learn about the park with a ranking of the 15 best things to do at the More Than Just Trails website. And the official website is here.
Here are a few quick videos of the falls to leave you with…
We finished off the second day with dinner in Little Italy with my nephew who is in law school at Case Western and a friend of Tony’s and then headed home. A fantastic two day trip in Cleveland that I highly recommend! Hope you enjoyed the highlights!
M10 Social is owned by Doug Cohen in West Bloomfield, MI and provides social media training and digital marketing services from the Frameable Faces Photography studio Doug owns with his wife Ally. He can be reached there at tel:248-790-7317, by mobile at tel:248-346-4121 or via email at mailto:doug@frameablefaces.com. You can follow Doug’s band Vintage Playboy at their Facebook page here.
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