Patterns, designs used by Garfield family available

Many folks cruise right by the Mentor Avenue home of 20th U.S. President James A. Garfield.

Although many folks tell me they cruise right by the Mentor Avenue home of 20th U.S. President James A. Garfield and have never stepped inside, I’ve visited dozens of times during my many decades as a Mentor resident.

In my opinion, it’s one of the treasures of Northeast Ohio.

I knew the place when the house was white and part of a wall was cut away so visitors could view Garfield’s clever addition of plumbing in the late 1800s, long before anyone else had it.

Since 2008, when it began to be managed by the National Park Service, restoration projects have been dedicated to returning it to how it was when the Garfields lived in the home. That’s also when it was named the James A. Garfield National Historic Site instead of Lawnfield. Garfield family members lived there until 1934, and careful records were kept, so the park service was able to research the original colors and patterns used at the beginning of the last century.

It was an era when wallpaper was popular, and the park service found a company to replicate 11 wallpaper patterns found in the home.

“People who tour often comment on the wallpapers,” said Park Ranger Mary Lintern. “They’re especially taken with the blue floral paper of the Garfields’ bedroom walls.”

And visitors usually are surprised to learn that Garfield’s wife, Lucretia, painted the tiles that surround the fireplace in the dining room, she said.

A partnership with the park service’s Eastern National Regional Manager Cathy NagleErvin resulted in products using the patterns and artwork found in the Garfield home. They’re now available in the Garfield Site’s gift shop, which is run by Eastern National.

Visitors now can take home a scarf and raincape made in the same blue floral print that’s found in Lucretia’s bedroom and use a trivet depicting a nest full of robin’s eggs among those tiles hand-painted by Lucretia.

The Garfield’s home was built in 1876 and added to as the family grew.

Its designs were chosen by the family and surrounded them in their everyday life. Unlike with many historic homes of that age, 95 percent of the furnishings and artifacts in the home are original to the time it was used.

“This means that visitors truly step back in time when they take the Garfield tour,” Lintern said.

To promote the new items in the gift shop, volunteer Debbie Weinkamer posed in the rain cape and scarf next to the bedroom’s blue floral wallpaper for a Facebook post.

She portrays Lucretia Garfield at the Site’s living history events.

Here’s the original post, which ran last summer: facebook.com/GarfieldNPS/ posts/1807625209292050.

Soon, the items began to fly off the gift shop shelves and even were picked up by other gift shops among the National Park Service’s sites. The rain cape is now the second most popular purchase, and the James Garfield Home Decor Collection has been entered in a 2019 Public Lands Alliance Partnership Awards competition to name the Innovative Product of the Year.

Readers can vote for it at bit. ly/2THUjr5.

SUBMITTED A bird’s nest tile hand-painted by Lucretia Garfield has been replicated for a trivet available at the gift shop of the Garfield National Historic Site.