CLEVELAND — If you had a visit to the President James Garfield Memorial in Lake View Cemetery on your summer list of activities, you'll need to hurry up. The site will be closed to visitors come Monday until next spring so work can begin on the latest phase of the Memorial's restoration, which started in 2016.
"The great thing is this is Phase 3, and it's the final phase of the exterior work that we're doing here," said Lake View Cemetery President and CEO Kathy Goss of the work that will begin Monday.
"The first 20 steps coming into the building are all going to be removed, and the underpinning of the steps are going to be repaired for more support. Each step will be put back in place just as it was originally," she said. Also slated to be replaced are the concrete pavers at the top of those steps on the terrace level.
"All the pavers that are there are going to be removed, and there's a membrane layer underneath that was once holding back water that was seeping inside the building," Goss said. "The surface that we're putting back on that is like a roofing surface technically, and it's going to be monolithic finish, so we won't have to worry about wobbly pavers."
"Lastly, really, the railings are going to be replaced with proper iron forged railings that are suitable for this architectural style."
That's the main reason why the whole site will be shut down until next spring, with no access.
"You can't get in, and it's going to be a construction site that's going to be all fenced off, this entire section including the lawn, which is where we have our Memorial Day service and concerts."
As a result, the concerts will be staged in a different part of the cemetery. "There will be information on our website about that," she said.
A lot of the exterior work that has been done over the last seven years, Goss said, had been focused on structural.
"What we wanted to avoid is a shift in the structure; we really didn't want the Leaning Tower of Pisa here," Goss said.
Though the memorial will be closed until next spring, the educational aspect of it will continue through guides that will be stationed at interpretive signs nearby.
"There will be somebody there to talk about the life of Garfield and the restoration, what's going on, the building and why it's important."
Garfield was killed by an assassin in 1881, the second of four U.S. Presidents to die that way. It is said that of all the final resting places of American presidents; this is truly one of if not the most majestic and a reflection of the nation’s gratitude towards him.
"Supposedly, it's the fanciest, and the irony of that is the man himself was not a fancy man. He was never that ornate or elaborate. What that does, though, is represent the love the country had for that president."
Preserving it extends that for generations to come, so if you planned to visit this Father's Day weekend, it will be your last chance this year to do it.
"This is the weekend, and fathers, it would be a great place for fathers to show up and bring children and friends; it's worth it," Goss said.
