THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 16, 1997 TAG: 9702150046
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: TRAVELWISE
SOURCE: Stephen Harriman
LENGTH: 146 lines
TOMORROW IS President's Day. Used to be the Monday closest to George Washington's birthday (Feb. 22) was a federal holiday called Washington's Birthday (Observed). Then it became Washington-Lincoln Day (Abraham Lincoln was born Feb. 12). Finally it was decided to just call it President's Day and honor them all - the good, the bad and the ugly.
We Virginians are fairly chauvinistic about ``our'' presidents. Four of the first five U.S. presidents were Virginians (serving 16 of the first 20 years of the presidency), and seven of the first 12 were born in Virginia. The Old Dominion claims eight presidents in all. So does Ohio.
They are Washington (1), Thomas Jefferson (3), James Madison (4), James Monroe (5), William Henry Harrison (9), John Tyler (10), Zachary Taylor (12) and Woodrow Wilson (28). Some were more ``Virginian'' than others.
Washington was born in Westmoreland County on the Northern Neck and lived most of his life at Mount Vernon near Alexandria. Both his birthplace and Mount Vernon are open to visitors.
Jefferson was born at Shadwell in Albemarle County near Charlottesville and lived most of his life at nearby Monticello. Monticello is open to visitors.
Madison was born at Port Conway (now extinct) in King George County across the Rappahannock from Port Royal and lived most of his life at Montpelier in Orange County. Montpelier is open to visitors.
Monroe was born in Westmoreland County near present-day Colonial Beach and lived at various times in Fredericksburg, Albemarle County and Loudoun County. His Albemarle home, Ash Lawn-Highlands, near Monticello is open to visitors.
W.H. Harrison was born at Berkeley Plantation in Charles City County, but spent most of his adult life in what was called the Northwest Territory and Ohio. He is also claimed by Ohio. Berkeley, the ancestral home of the Harrisons (Benjamin the 5th was a signer of the Declaration of Independence), is open to visitors.
Tyler was born at Greenway in Charles City County and lived in Williamsburg and, after his presidency, at Sherwood Forest in Charles City County. Sherwood Forest is open to visitors.
Taylor was born in Orange County near present-day Gordonsville, but moved at at an early age to Kentucky, which became his adopted state and which also claims him. His birthplace is not open.
Wilson was born in Staunton, where his minister father happened to be serving at the time. He grew up in Georgia and South Carolina, and he is also claimed by New Jersey, where he served as governor and president of Princeton University. The Manse at Staunton is open to visitors.
So, what is this with Ohio? The Buckeye State, which also claims eight, calls itself ``The Mother of Presidents.'' Cradle, maybe, but not mother. And one more thing: Ohio's eight favorite sons who've won the White House aren't much of a bunch to brag about.
Two (Warren Harding and U.S. Grant) are rated among the four worst chief executives the country has had. Four are best known for dying in office (W.H. Harrison, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and Harding), two by assassins' bullets (Garfield and McKinley). Two lost the popular vote (Benjamin Harrison and Rutherford Hayes) but stole the election anyway. One (William Howard Taft) is best remembered for being so fat he got stuck in a bathtub - twice.
Ben Harrison today is best known as the last president to wear a beard.
``Ohio went for quantity, not quality,'' Cincinnati Enquirer political writer Howard Wilkinson once lamented in a column reviewing the state's presidential patrimony.
But in Ohio, even the lowliest man to hold the highest office gets a shrine for his acolytes, no matter how few. It's been called (though not by Ohioans) the Mediocre Presidents Trail.
In the village of North Bend, outside Cincinnati, you can get directions to William Henry Harrison's grave and the spot where his grandson Benjamin Harrison was born. Just the spot - the house was torn down long ago.
Grant's boyhood home in Georgetown is a museum open to the public by prior arrangement. The school Grant attended as a boy is in Ripley. Grant himself turned his back on Ohio after he won appointment to West Point, living the rest of his life in Illinois and New York, except for his eight years in the White House.
Hayes' 25-acre Spiegel Grove estate at Fremont features the first presidential library, with 75,000 volumes along with all sorts of Hayes memorabilia. Franklin Roosevelt visited Hayes' neoclassical ``presidential center'' and had to have his own. Every president since has followed suit.
On a busy highway near a line of strip malls in the Cleveland suburb of Mentor is the ramshackle remains of Lawnfield, once home to Garfield. Mentor hopes to reopen the 30-room white clapboard home by 1998. A visitors center has a small museum and shows a film that lasts 18 minutes - only slightly shorter than Garfield's term.
If you drive out the backside of the parking lot at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton and follow a winding street, you'll find the impressive classical tomb of McKinley. It is the grandest of Ohio's presidential memorials. A museum next door features items from his career.
Taft professed that he never much liked the presidency and felt much more at home after fellow Ohioan Harding appointed him chief justice of the Supreme Court. ``I don't remember that I ever was president,'' he remarked. Many Americans agreed. Taft's home in the Mount Auburn section of Cincinnati is now a national historical site. Taft is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Not far from the Popcorn Museum in Marion is Harding's former home, where he ran his campaign from the front porch. Across town is the neoclassical colonnade marking his burial spot.
Wine with GW, TJ
Back here in Virginia, during Mount Vernon's first Wine Tasting Festival and Sunset Tour, May 16-18, you can join George Washington and Thomas Jefferson on the mansion's piazza for wine tasting and an evening tour with first-person interpretation.
The 6-9 p.m. tours will include for the first time ever a visit to the mansion's basement and the stone vaults where Washington stores his wines. Twelve Virginia wineries will offer samples of their products on the north lawn.
This is expected to be a sellout. Early reservations are suggested. Advance tickets will be sold March 1 through May 7 at $15; after May 7, tickets will be $18, if any are left. For reservations, call (703) 799-8604, beginning March 1.
Sugar and cream?
How do you like your coffee? You do like coffee, don't you? North Americans drink more than half-a-billion cups of it every day. If you're among them, you'll want to join ``A Taste for Travel'' host Burt Wolf as he travels from Italy to the Middle East to Seattle in search of the perfect coffee break on The Travel Channel at 9:30 p.m. Friday.
The English word ``mocha'' is a corruption of the word ``makha'' - the name of the port in Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula through which most of the coffee was exported to Europe during the Middle Ages.
Wolf travels to Italy to find out about espresso from one of the oldest families in the business. The Illy family's romance with coffee began in the 1930s with Francesco, one of the founding fathers of espresso. Wolf tours their facility and learns all there is to know about the process of making espresso.
During the show, Wolf also learns how to prepare two desserts that go well with coffee - tiramisu and lemon curd tart. Additionally, he gives viewers the inside story on the famous Amoretti di Saronno cookies, created by two young Italian lovers.
Dream travel
The 17th annual Vacation and Travel Showcase, sponsored by CI Travel, will be March 8-9 at the Virginia Beach Pavilion. Visitors will be eligible to win trips to Beijing, Milan, Ireland, Hawaii, Cayman Islands, Cancun, Grand Bahama Island, San Diego and Las Vegas.
That alone ought to be worth the price of admission, which is free. You can pick up tickets at any CI Travel or Crestar Bank location, while they last. CI Travel representatives will offer $25 off cruise or tour purchases of $250 or more. MEMO: Travelwise is compiled from wire-service reports, news releases,
trade journals, books, magazines and the deepest recesses of the
writer's mind. Send comments and questions to Travelwise, The
Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va. 23501-0449; phone (757) 446-2904.