Sunday, August 17, 2003

By Bob Hoover, Post-Gazette Book Editor

Poor Pennsylvania. One of the original 13 states and the place where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were crafted, it has managed to send only one of its citizens, James Buchanan, to the White House, for four undistinguished years.

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Right next door, however, is "the birthplace of presidents": Ohio. Seven of its native sons, including James Garfield and William McKinley, held the nation's highest office.

Sites honoring those men are an easy drive from Pittsburgh. In Niles, near Youngstown, is the McKinley Birthplace Memorial. In nearby Canton is the McKinley Museum and National Memorial.

Farther north, in Mentor near Cleveland, is the Garfield National Historical Site.

The Garfield home, Lawnfield, is by far the most interesting of the three. It was a working farm while the politician was still alive and also served as his campaign headquarters, complete with a telegraph line to tally election returns.

After his death, his widow, Lucretia, used a sizable memorial donation to expand the simple house by adding a handsome addition to display her husband's books and papers.

She essentially created the first presidential library. It includes a fireproof walk-in safe made in Pittsburgh.

The Garfield family donated the property in 1936 to the Western Reserve Historical Society. The National Parks Service took it over in 1980 and completed a $11.8 million renovation of the house and grounds in 1998.

Sitting behind a low white fence on busy Mentor Avenue, Lawnfield is a distinctive bit of rural America in the middle of a suburb of substantial homes and shopping malls. On seven acres are the house and eight other structures, among them Garfield's campaign office and a windmill that provided water to the house.

Tours are given from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays and noon-5 p.m. Sundays. They start at the visitors center, Lawnfield's former carriage house, which is also a museum of Garfield artifacts, including his death mask. Phone 1-440-255-8722 or access the Western Reserve Web site, www.wrhs.org.

The house offers a glimpse of the overstuffed Victorian decorating style of the 1880s as well as the Garfields' dedication to their five children. The visitors center has a few activities for children, and the large grounds give kids plenty of room to roam. Plus, the town has a full complement of chain restaurants at its various malls.

Mentor is 140 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. My route was to take I-79 north to I-80 west to Ohio Route 11 north near Youngstown. I then exited 11 for I-90 west toward Mentor. I took the Route 306 (Broadmoor Road) exit to Mentor and followed it to Mentor Avenue, where I turned right. Lawnfield is 1 1/2 miles on the left at 8095 Mentor Ave.

The National McKinley Birthplace Memorial in Niles is not a family outing kind of place but a stop for history buffs.

McKinley was born and reared in Niles but spent his adult years in nearby Canton, where he is buried. The Canton home where he conducted his front-porch campaigns for president no longer exists.

Standing in the center of Niles, a small town showing the ravages of post-industrial Ohio, the McKinley Memorial is a cold, formidable place in the Greek temple style, complete with 28 marble columns. A massive statue of the president is the centerpiece, surrounded by busts of his political cronies.

One wing of the site is the public library; the other side houses a small museum of artifacts and an auditorium. Among the busts on site are those of Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Mellon, who donated money to the project.

A librarian will let you in the museum during library hours -- 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and noon-5 p.m. Sundays from September to May.

Call 1-330-652-1704 for details. I picked up I-80 west from I-79 north and took the Ohio Route 46 exit north directly into Niles. The memorial is at 40 N. Main St.

There's more to be learned about McKinley at his tomb in Canton, an imposing granite domed structure completed in 1907 on landscaped grounds northwest of the city. But, because it's a mausoleum, it, too, lacks the character and warmth of the Garfield site.

At the memorial, the Stark County Historical Society operates a museum of local history and McKinley memorabilia, the McKinley library, a science museum and a planetarium.

The complex at 800 McKinley Monument Drive is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays and noon-5 p.m. Sundays. Call 1-330-455-7043 or go to the Web site www.mckinleymuseum.org. To visit, take the Pennsylvania Turnpike to the Ohio Turnpike, leaving at I-76 west. Follow to I-77 south and take exit 106 to the site.

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