Edgar Allan Poe is coming back to Mentor. The James A. Garfield National Historic Site will host six performances of “An Evening with Edgar Allan Poe” on September 24, with shows at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. featuring recitations of The Raven alongside other Poe classics, and tickets for the $40 event go on sale August 15.
The evening performances are staged inside Lawnfield, the 25-room home President James A. Garfield purchased in 1876, according to Cleveland.com. Ticket holders get more than a seat for the show — admission includes refreshments and an open-house tour of the Garfield home, per the same report. The 6 p.m. performances feature The Raven and The Pit and the Pendulum, while the 8 p.m. shows pair The Raven with Hop-Frog, and reservations are required.
Actor David Keltz, who has portrayed Poe at the Garfield site since 2010, performs the selections from memory. Keltz gave his first performance as Poe on Halloween night in 1991 at Poe's grave in Baltimore and has portrayed the gothic author for more than three decades across the United States and internationally, according to ALXnow. The performance series at the Garfield site dates back to October 2010 and originally received grant support from the Lake County Visitors Bureau Arts and Culture Fund, per National Park Service records.
A Home Steeped in Poe's Own Reading Habits
The pairing of Poe with Garfield's home isn't just a Halloween novelty booking — it traces back to the president's own bookshelves. In 1885, four years after her husband's assassination, Lucretia Garfield established a Memorial Library at the Mentor property containing roughly 1,400 books from his personal collection, including several original volumes of Poe's writings, according to Ohio Magazine. Garfield was an avid reader who collected and read Poe's work during his lifetime, the magazine notes. That Memorial Library wing is widely recognized by historians and the National Park Service as the nation's first presidential library, according to the City of Mentor.
Lawnfield carries plenty of other history beyond its library shelves. Garfield conducted the nation's first successful “front porch campaign” from the property in 1880, drawing more than 17,000 visitors and reporters who nicknamed the estate “Lawnfield,” the city says. He went on to serve as the nation's 20th president for only four months before he was shot on July 2, 1881, by assassin Charles J. Guiteau, dying 79 days later on September 19, 1881, primarily from severe infection and medical complications, per Ohio Magazine. Congress designated the property as the James A. Garfield National Historic Site on December 28, 1980, after the Garfield family donated the home and its furnishings to the Western Reserve Historical Society in 1936, according to the city's account.
What Visitors Will See Inside
The restored 25-room main residence contains approximately 85 percent original furnishings and personal artifacts belonging to President Garfield and his family, according to RealClearHistory. That means visitors touring the home during the Poe event are viewing authentic period items the Garfields actually owned. The National Park Service restricts attendance to visitors ages 16 and older given the mature themes running through Poe's gothic literature featured in the show.
The site draws a steady stream of visitors even outside its themed events, having recorded 36,553 visitors in 2023 across its 7.8-acre grounds in Lake County, according to the National Park Service. The Poe performance is presented through a partnership with the Garfield Trail, a nonprofit that promotes four Northeast Ohio sites connected to Garfield's life, according to Cleveland.com's report. Those sites include the Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor, Garfield's birthplace in Moreland Hills, his memorial at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, and Hiram College.
Family Ties Behind the Trail
The Garfield Trail was founded by Tim Garfield, a great-great-grandson of James A. Garfield, along with Carla Vondrak Garfield, Chris Weinkamer and Debbie Weinkamer, per Cleveland.com. The trail's stated mission is supporting preservation and awareness of the historic sites tied to the 20th president's legacy. Molly Walsh, who covers Lake and Geauga counties for the Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com, reported the details of the September 24 return of the Poe performances at 8095 Mentor Ave. in Mentor.
