Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb__ A Tour of Presidential Gravesites - Brian Lamb [49]
Touring William Howard Taft’s Tomb at Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery is open daily, 365 days a year. Hours are from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. from April through September and 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from October through March. Admission to the cemetery is free.
Arlington National Cemetery is located across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., at the north end of the Memorial Bridge. The bridge is accessible from Constitution Avenue or Twenty-third Street N.W. near the Lincoln Memorial. The cemetery can also be reached by Metrorail, at the Arlington Cemetery stop on the blue line.
Cars are not allowed on the cemetery grounds except by special permission. There is ample paid parking available near the Visitors Center. Motorized tours of the cemetery are available for a fee through Tourmobile; however, the Taft gravesite is not one of the tour’s scheduled stops.
Maps of the cemetery are available at the Visitors Center. To reach Taft’s grave from the cemetery’s main entrance (Memorial Drive), go right onto Schley Drive. Brown signs lead the way to the Taft gravesite.
For additional information
Superintendent
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington, VA 22211
Visitor Center Phone:
(703) 607-8000
www.arlingtoncemetery.org
The Taft gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery
“Taft made up in principle what he lacked in political dexterity. ”
—Richard Norton Smith
William Howard Taft and John F. Kennedy might seem, at first glance, a presidential odd couple. In truth, they share more than a common resting place. Long before he became the first American president to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Taft was the victim of religious bias. During the 1908 campaign, a Presbyterian minister in his native Cincinnati urged his flock to vote for Taft’s opponent, William Jennings Bryan. The man of the cloth accused Taft of being overly friendly to Roman Catholics, with whom he had negotiated a landmark sale of church properties as governor general of the Philippines.
A more serious controversy involved Taft’s less than orthodox beliefs. “I am a Unitarian,” he wrote forthrightly. “I believe in God. I do not believe in the Divinity of Christ.” Under the circumstances, Taft had felt it necessary to withdraw his name from consideration for the Yale presidency. The White House was a different story.
A maladroit politician, Taft made things worse by playing golf on Sundays. Theodore Roosevelt advised him to be more discreet. Moreover, said TR, golf was viewed in many quarters as an elite pastime. Taft was confused. His friend the president played tennis—if anything a more rarified game. True enough, replied Roosevelt. But there was a difference: he didn’t allow photographers to take his picture.
Taft made up in principle what he lacked in political dexterity. “Of course, I’m interested in the spread of Christian civilization,” he wrote to one concerned voter in August 1908, “but to go into a dogmatic discussion of creed I will not do whether I am defeated or not…if the American electorate is so narrow as not to want a Unitarian, well and good. I can stand it.”
—RNS
Woodrow Wilson
Buried: Washington National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.
Twenty-eighth President - 1913-1921
Born: December 28, 1856, in Staunton, Virginia
Died: 11:15 a.m. on February 3, 1924, in Washington, D.C.
Age at death: 67
Cause of death: Heart failure
Final words: “The machinery is worn out.
I am ready…. Edith!…”
Admission to Washington National
Cathedral: Free
The only president with a Ph.D. (in political science), Woodrow Wilson earned a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending World War I and creating the League of Nations. His administration also saw the addition of three amendments to the Constitution: the seventeenth,