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President's Graves/Tombs





I have visited the burial sites of all but eight Presidents: Millard Fillmore,  FranklinPierce, Calvin Coolidge, Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush.  Most of the graves are rather non-descript, marked by tombstones of various sizes.  Some are buried on the grounds of their plantations or homes.  Others are buried in local cemeteries. A couple are buried inside churches.  Some are buried on the grounds of their museum/libraries.
     Of the burial sites I have visited, four stand out for the magnificence of the tombs: Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, James Garfield,  and William McKinley.


I first visited Lincoln's tomb in Springfield, IL, in 1986.  I have since been back over a dozen times.  The first time, I was by myself.  I remember the hair on the back of my neck standing up and tears coming to my eyes, Probably more because of the significance of the man rater than the size and ornate structure of the tomb, which was very impressive.


I drove by Grant's tomb in New York City a few times, but didn't go inside until 2016 while I was visiting NYC with my family after a Skar reunion.  Grants tomb is on the bank of the Hudson River across the street from the Riverside Church northwest from Central Park.
James Garfield was assassinated in 1881.  His tomb is in a large cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.  Garfield's is probably the most ornate and elaborate of the Presidential tombs.  Inside a large spiral staircase goes down from the main floor to a lower floor where Garfield and his wife are entombed.  John D. Rockefeller is also buried in this cemetery.






William McKinley was assassinated in 1901.  His tomb is in Canton, Ohio.  I visited McKinley's tomb in 2019 on our way home from the ABC convention in Virginia Beach.  It's a long climb up the steps to get to the tomb from the parking lot.








There is one tomb that is inside the most ornate and elaborate building of all.  Woodrow Wilson is buried in the National Cathedral in Washington, D. C.  His body is in a a sarcophagus in one of the hallways running along the side of the main chamber in the cathedral.  The first couple times I was in the Cathedral I walked right by it without knowing what it was.  



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