Yes, we did. We visited three different United States Presidents’ Grave sites for Christmas, 2011! First stop was to our 16th President, James Buchanan’s grave in Woodward Hill Cemetery, right here in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Woodward Hill was once a beautiful cemetery, but as the city grew, the area it is in became surrounded by “less than desirable” housing and the cemetery fell into disrepair. We were disappointed that there wasn’t even a Christmas Wreath honoring this former President. His home is decorated beautifully, his final resting place isn’t. (To be fair, James Buchanan’s home is maintained by a completely different organization than the cemetery is, and they aren’t responsible for what happens in the cemetery!)
The second President we visited was our 27th President, William Howard Taft. He was so admired by Theodore Roosevelt that he had been “hand picked” to be his successor as President, and it’s easy to see why since he wasn’t only our President, but he was also, United States Secretary of War, Governor of the Philippines and Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
. . . and of course if you’re visiting Presidents and you’re visiting Arlington National Cemetery, you must visit the Eternal Flame and JFK’s Memorial. Since we had not been there for years, we stopped by to pay our respect to our 35th President and his family.
This was probably one of the most popular sites in the cemetery, with people ignoring “Authorized Vehicles Only” signs to drive right to it. They also ignored this sign, and any others they could find.
The site for this President sits right under the Arlington House, former residence of Robert E. Lee. The Kennedy site sits land managed by the Army, which at the time of Kennedy’s death, controlled Arlington Cemetery and close to the land the Arlington House sits on, which was controlled by the National Park Service.
This was just part of our Christmas journey to Washington D.C., but a part that will be forever etched in our hearts and mind.
