BUFFALO - Ninety-nine years after his death, former President Grover Cleveland is experiencing a popularity surge in the city that launched his political career.
Plans are in the works for a Grover Cleveland Presidential Library. The grass-roots effort is meant to resurrect the reputation of a good president “who has kind of gotten lost in history,” organizer James Ostrowski said.
“We just think it's long overdue,” said Ostrowski, founder of a public policy think tank that shares Cleveland's disdain for heavy-handed government.
His group, Free New York, has its eye on a shuttered library built in 1897, the year Cleveland left office, and has begun raising money to lease or buy it for the repository.
On Wednesday, one of the late president's grandsons was in from New Hampshire to learn more about the plans and help with fundraising.
“It's a fabulous idea,” said George Cleveland, 54, who impersonates his grandfather at Democratic dinners in his home state.
“Really what exists for papers are sort of scattered all over the Eastern Seaboard,” he said.
It wasn't until Herbert Hoover that presidents began getting formal libraries overseen by a branch of the National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper said there are no restrictions on opening a library for an earlier president.
In Buffalo, the Cleveland library would become another attraction for the cultural tourists the city has been trying to woo. Presidential history buffs already can see where William McKinley was assassinated in 1901 and the Greek Revival house where Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated soon after. In nearby East Aurora sits the Millard Fillmore House, which Fillmore built in 1825 when he was a country lawyer.
Cleveland was a lawyer in Buffalo before becoming mayor and then governor of New York. He served his first presidential term from 1885-1889, and his second term from 1893-1897.
He was the only president to leave the White House and return four years later, after losing his first re-election despite winning the popular vote.
Other trivia: He was the only president to get married in the White House, and the Baby Ruth candy bar was named for his first-born daughter. He was born in New Jersey and died there in 1908.
After leaving office, Cleveland refused cushy offers to sit on boards of corporations for high pay and little work, his grandson said.
“He wouldn't do that because he didn't think you were supposed to benefit from public service,” George Cleveland said. “Some people say that's why we're Clevelands and not Kennedys,” he quipped.
And while history tends to highlight war presidents and those who died in office, Cleveland said, his grandfather made his mark.
He established the U.S. Department of Labor and signed the Interstate Commerce Act, the first law attempting federal regulation of the railroads. He vetoed many fraudulent pension claims by Civil War veterans and was a strong defender of anti-imperialism, tariff reform and the gold standard.
“We just think it's long overdue,” said Ostrowski, founder of a public policy think tank that shares Cleveland's disdain for heavy-handed government.
His group, Free New York, has its eye on a shuttered library built in 1897, the year Cleveland left office, and has begun raising money to lease or buy it for the repository.
On Wednesday, one of the late president's grandsons was in from New Hampshire to learn more about the plans and help with fundraising.
“It's a fabulous idea,” said George Cleveland, 54, who impersonates his grandfather at Democratic dinners in his home state.
“Really what exists for papers are sort of scattered all over the Eastern Seaboard,” he said.
It wasn't until Herbert Hoover that presidents began getting formal libraries overseen by a branch of the National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper said there are no restrictions on opening a library for an earlier president.
In Buffalo, the Cleveland library would become another attraction for the cultural tourists the city has been trying to woo. Presidential history buffs already can see where William McKinley was assassinated in 1901 and the Greek Revival house where Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated soon after. In nearby East Aurora sits the Millard Fillmore House, which Fillmore built in 1825 when he was a country lawyer.
Cleveland was a lawyer in Buffalo before becoming mayor and then governor of New York. He served his first presidential term from 1885-1889, and his second term from 1893-1897.
He was the only president to leave the White House and return four years later, after losing his first re-election despite winning the popular vote.
Other trivia: He was the only president to get married in the White House, and the Baby Ruth candy bar was named for his first-born daughter. He was born in New Jersey and died there in 1908.
After leaving office, Cleveland refused cushy offers to sit on boards of corporations for high pay and little work, his grandson said.
“He wouldn't do that because he didn't think you were supposed to benefit from public service,” George Cleveland said. “Some people say that's why we're Clevelands and not Kennedys,” he quipped.
And while history tends to highlight war presidents and those who died in office, Cleveland said, his grandfather made his mark.
He established the U.S. Department of Labor and signed the Interstate Commerce Act, the first law attempting federal regulation of the railroads. He vetoed many fraudulent pension claims by Civil War veterans and was a strong defender of anti-imperialism, tariff reform and the gold standard.
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