Presidents and First Ladies Trivia

[Leon Greene]

   

(10-21-2017 07:17 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Excellent, Eva! Yes, according to Louis Picone's The President is Dead! the author is standing on the approximate spot where President James Garfield was shot on July 2, 1881. The shooting occurred in Washington's Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station.

Picone writes:

"After the Union Station opened in 1907, the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station was torn down. In 1936, district city engineers set out to determine the spot where Garfield was shot. Their best estimates placed the shooting at the center of Constitution Avenue NW, approximately 30-40 feet west of the Sixth Street corner. There is no marker at the location today, making the site the only presidential assassination site that is completely unrecognized."

Earlier, a tiny marker was indeed erected in memory of President Garfield's 1881 assassination. In the waiting room of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Terminal in Washington, D.C., a bronze star on the floor of the terminal marked the spot where Charles Guiteau had shot President James Garfield, and a marble tablet on the adjacent wall commemorated the event. Train passengers apparently disliked the reminder of the tragedy that had occurred on this spot, and after a minor fire in the terminal on March 4, 1897, both the star and the plaque were removed, never to be restored to their original locations. With the demolition of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Terminal after its closure in 1907, the assassination site's precise location became obscured.

I've attempted (maybe unsuccessfully) to attach a photo of the memorial. It can be seen at http://civilwarwashingtondc1861-1865.blo...-1881.html