Is it bizarre to have a favorite presidential gravesite? Perhaps. But I’ve visited a number of them and have a few opinions. I remember seeing James Madison’s, near Montpelier (his Virginia home), and being struck by its loneliness: It’s in a family plot (not lonely) but it’s also more than a stone’s throw from the mansion and, unlike the experiences of visiting the graves of fellow founders Washington and Jefferson, where there always seem to be people milling around on well-trod paths, nobody was at Madison’s except me. I had the sense that it receives very few visits. I’m also kind of partial to Woodrow Wilson’s gravesite, which is in the Washington National Cathedral. I think he’s the only president entombed in a church, a la Westminster Abbey. This website is a handy guide to presidential graves.

My favorite grave of any famous American may be that of Gen. John J. Pershing, who led American soldiers during the First World War. He’s buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and he has an ordinary white tombstone marker, just like a regular GI.