Skip to main content

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.  



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Orleans and the Mississippi River

     I had a hard time getting my head around the fact that the Mississippi flows through New Orleans from west to east rather than north to south. The river dominates the city.  It actually winds through the city in a “u” shape.  The right side of the “u” actually flows south to north.  They don’t use the cardinal directions: north south east west. Instead they say up river downriver toward the river and away from the river. They also talk about before aKatrina and after Katrina.   I took a riverboat down riverfive mikes to where the Battle of New Orleans was fought in 1815. I took some pictures along the way including the dukes that are supposed to keep the river under control.
Post a Comment
Read more

The Battle of New Orleans

     The Battle of New Orleans was fought in late December, 1814 and early January, 1815, culminating in the final battle on January 8.  The Americans, a ragtag bunch, made up of some regulars and some militia, plus volunteer free Blacks, Creoles, Natives, and s few French pirates We’re led byAndrew Jackson.      The British had more soldiers and they were better armed and better trained. However when the final battle was over the British had suffered 2000 casualties and the Americans less than fifty. It was one of the most lopsided battles in the history of warfare. Ironically the battle was fought after the Treaty if Ghent had ended the War of 1812.  The Americans victory ensured that the British would honor the terms.   It also propelled Andrew Jackson into the awhite house.      The pictures above were taken at the battlefield. A tell oblisk monument marks the center of the battlefield. The other picture is if the rai...
Post a Comment
Read more

President's Graves

On this trip with David we are going to visit the graves of five Presidents.  One of the greatest, George Washington at Mount Vernon.  One of the worst, James Buchanan at Lancaster, PA.  Three in the middle.  Woodrow Wilson at the National Cathedral in Washington.  John Kennedy and Howard Taft at Arlington Cemetary in Virginia.  The two most impressive Presidential graves I have been to are Lincoln's in Springfield, IL, and Grant's in New York  City.      I have been to 17 of the 39 Presidential graves.  Most of them are very humble.   many are located in regular cemetaries.  Their grave stones are less remarkable than many others in the same cemetary.  I found this to be true of Buchanan's in Lancaster and Tyler's in Richmond.  Many are buried at their Presidential libraries, such as Hoover and Truman.  Some are buried at their homes, such as Washington, Jefferson, and FDR.      I think Lin...
1 comment
Read more