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James A. Garfield National Historic Site (Lawnfield)

Mentor · Lake County · Northeast Ohio

The home of the first successful front porch campaign

National Historic LandmarkNational Park Service site

Visiting information you can trust

Check before driving — this site is seasonal, approximate, privately run, or otherwise uncertain. Confirm hours and access with the official source above.

Content last reviewed: September 2026 — this is when Field Notes Ohio's content was last checked, not a live status.
Primary official source: Official page
Location confidence: Verified entrance or visitor center
James A. Garfield National Historic Site, 8095 Mentor Ave
Seasonal access: Hours vary by season; one listing gives May 1 to October 31, Monday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays only, noon to 5 p.m., from November to April. Confirm with the park.
Check current conditions: Official conditions or closures
Reservations or tickets: Tickets or admission info

Prices, hours, closures, campsite availability and trail conditions shown elsewhere on this page are not live — always confirm with the official source before you go.

The Mentor home of the 20th president, where a candidate spoke from his front porch and a widow built the first presidential library.

Home: Garfield bought the farm in 1876 for his large family; reporters named it Lawnfield
1880: The first successful front porch campaign, with visitors greeted from the porch
Addition: Eleven rooms were added to the house in 1880
Library: Lucretia Garfield added a Memorial Library wing after his death, the first presidential library
Site: A National Historic Site since December 28, 1980; 4.9 acres
Buckeye Trail: Mentor is a Buckeye Trail Town on the Burton Section

The story

James A. Garfield bought the Mentor farm in 1876 to house his large family, which had grown since his years as a Union officer. In the summer and fall of 1880, as the Republican nominee, he stayed at home and greeted thousands of visitors from the front porch: dignitaries, students, Civil War veterans, women's and immigrant groups and well-wishers who came by foot, carriage and the railroad that ran through his land. Reporters called the place Lawnfield, and a campaign office on the grounds had a telegraph line so the candidate could follow the news. It became known as the first successful front porch campaign, and he won.

On July 2, 1881, Charles Guiteau, a disgruntled office seeker, shot Garfield twice at the Baltimore and Potomac railroad station in Washington. The wound itself was survivable, but doctors led by Dr. D. Willard Bliss repeatedly probed it with unsterilized fingers and instruments, and Garfield lingered for 80 days before dying of sepsis and complications on September 19, 1881, at Elberon, New Jersey. Historians and medical experts broadly agree that his treatment substantially reduced his chances of survival, although the exact mechanism of death is still debated. He is buried at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland. After his death, a subscription fund raised by his friends paid for his widow, Lucretia, to add a Memorial Library wing to Lawnfield, which set the pattern for presidential libraries. The National Park Service took over the site in 1980 and the house is now open for tours.

Related sites

The Porch That Won an Election

Candidates in 1880 were expected to stay home and look modest, and Garfield did exactly that, with a large twist. He stayed on his farm, and the country came to him. Trains ran special excursions to Mentor, and he stood on the porch and gave short speeches to delegations of veterans, students and workers.

It worked, and other candidates copied it, most famously Warren G. Harding in Marion in 1920.

Behind the legend

The 1880 campaign, the name Lawnfield, the eleven-room addition and the first presidential library are documented by the National Park Service and Wikipedia. Warren Harding ran the last front porch campaign in Marion in 1920; see his entry. The account of Garfield's medical care comes from the Library of Congress, the American College of Surgeons and History.com, which agree that the doctors' probing with unsterilized fingers and instruments worsened the infection, and one modern account notes the precise mechanism of death remains a matter of historical debate.

If you go

Stand on the porch, tour the house and visit the memorial library, then stop at the Garfield memorial in Cleveland's Lake View Cemetery.

Visiting

Status

Open; confirm seasonal hours

Managed by

National Park Service

Hours

Hours vary by season; one listing gives May 1 to October 31, Monday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays only, noon to 5 p.m., from November to April. Confirm with the park.

Admission

See the National Park Service; tours require tickets from the visitor center.

Phone

440-255-8722

Please note

Tickets for house tours are sold at the visitor center.

Address

8095 Mentor Ave, Mentor, OH 44060

Official information →Directions Find trails nearby on AllTrails →

Hours and prices change. Confirm with the site before you go.