James A. Garfield Memorial

The Garfield Memorial was built to commemorate the 20th U.S. President James A. Garfield, who died of an assassination. It is a dominant building in a cemetery in Cleveland.

Description of structure

On the Lake View Cemetery ( Cleveland 's Lake View Cemetery ) in Cleveland is a monumental, reminiscent of a basilica rotunda with rectangular stem for receipt, which serves as a memorial to the former U.S. president. The building has a façade with rusticated neostilistische and was completed after five years of construction 1890. The external façade was built entirely of sandstone of the State of Ohio. The architect of this building was George Keller, who had it built on a hill within the cemetery. Some sculptural works come from the American sculptor Caspar Buberl.

Individual style elements draw on Byzantine architecture traditions, while others seem Neo-Romanesque and neo-Gothic to. Above the main portal that can be accessed via a staircase, three marble reliefs are mounted, depicting scenes from the life of Garfield. Two other bas-reliefs are located on the sides of the portal structure.

In the interior, which is provided on the walls and on the floors with a magnificent Marmoraustattung, is a larger than life statue of the president in Carrara marble. The indoor space is supported by lateral double columns of natural stone and has high Gothic style window with an ornamental colored glass.

Garfield's relations with the geology

Garfield relations with the geology were varied. As a senator from Ohio, he has argued for a revival of a former Ohio Geological Survey, which did not succeed. In his term as Congressman, he was one of the main supporters of the idea to establish a Geological Survey at the federal level ( U.S. Geological Survey). This authority finally took in 1879 on their work. In the second half of the 1880s, he lectured in geology at the present Hiram College Hiram.