Lawnfield, as the Garfield family called their property, is the best-preserved campaign home in American political history. Garfield bought the farmhouse in 1876 and enlarged it significantly to accommodate his large family before the 1880 election. During the campaign, he stayed home while delegations of supporters made pilgrimages from across the country to hear him speak from the porch — an approach that contrasted sharply with the barnstorming style of many political rivals and that worked. He won.
After Garfield's assassination in 1881, his family added a memorial library wing that set a precedent eventually institutionalised as the American presidential library tradition. The site is now managed jointly by the National Park Service and the Western Reserve Historical Society. Ranger-led tours walk through the original Victorian interiors, including a campaign office still full of Garfield's papers and books. The carriage house museum displays the family's personal effects and tells the story of his assassination and the exceptionally long and painful death that followed — kept alive for 79 days while his doctors, not his assassin, arguably killed him. Open Tuesday–Sunday; check the National Park Service website for current hours and tour schedules.