Lucretia Garfield

Lucretia Garfield (April 19, 1832 – March 13, 1918). South Pasadena had named a tract of land for her husband before it even incorporated - is that, perhaps, why she moved here in her retirement? The widow of President James A. Garfield moved to South Pasadena in October 1904. In the 1880s, before the City of South Pasadena was incorporated, the Garfield Tract and associated parkland had been named after her husband, the 20th U. S. President, who was assassinated in 1881.

He was popular and martyred—the developers thought this could boost sales. Once arriving, she lived in the city as a winter resident and eventually a permanent resident until her death on March 14, 1918. She was private and very quiet, but known and revered throughout town. President Theodore Roosevelt visited her at home on his second visit to the Pasadena area in 1912.

Her residence was designed by Greene & Greene, cousins of hers, at the start of their ascent as noted architects. Today it is a designated historic landmark, located at 1001 Buena Vista Street. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a South Pasadena Cultural Heritage Building.

Lucretia Garfield is most famous for her resilience as First Lady and her pioneering work in establishing the first presidential library in Mentor, Ohio. This private space became the model for Franklin Delano Roosevelt who continued the practice on a grander scale with the Presidential Library Act of 1935, opening his Hyde Park Estate on the Hudson River to the public. Garfield House in Mentor, Ohio was gifted to the public after Lucretia's death and can be visited today as a National Park Service-managed property.