Built 1926 Area 8,000 m² Added to NRHP 16 June 1976 | NRHP Reference # 76001485 Opened 1926 Architect Henry Hornbostel | |
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Location Marion Cemetery, Marion, Ohio Burials Warren G. Harding, Florence Harding Similar Harding Home, Palace Theatre, Marion County Courthouse, Marion Cemetery Receivin, William Henry Harrison | ||
The Harding Tomb, also known as the Harding Memorial, is the burial location of the 29th President of the United States, Warren G. Harding and First Lady Florence Kling Harding. It is located in Marion, Ohio at the southeast corner of Vernon Heights Boulevard and Delaware Avenue, just south of Marion Cemetery.
Contents
- President harding memorial park marion
- Plans for Construction
- Architecture
- Burials
- President Hoovers dedication
- Oversight
- References
President harding memorial park marion
Plans for Construction
Shortly after the country’s 29th President died in office, The Harding Memorial Association formed to raise money for a memorial site in honor of the late president. The association ultimately received $978,000 in donations from more than one million people across the country, as well as contributions from several European nations. Maybe most notably among the list of contributors from the United States were an estimated 200,000 school children, who donated pennies towards the memorial.
Architecture
Construction began in 1926 and finished in the early winter of 1927. It is designed in the style of a circular Greek temple with Doric order marble columns. The columns are built of Georgia white marble and are 28 feet (8.5 m) high and 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter at the base. Designed by Henry Hornbostel, Eric Fisher Wood and Edward Mellon, the winners of a 1925 national design competition, the structure is 103 feet (31 m) in diameter and 53 feet (16 m) in height.
The structure is unroofed (peribolus), in the style of some Greek temples in which the center (Hypaethros) was open to the sky and without a roof (medium autem sub diva est sine tecto). The open design honors the Hardings' wishes that they be buried outside, and is covered in ivy and other plantings.
Burials
At their deaths, the bodies of the Hardings were entombed in the Marion Cemetery Receiving Vault. Once the Harding Memorial was completed in 1927, the bodies were reinterred in the Memorial's sarcophagus and it was sealed. Because Harding's reputation was damaged by personal controversies and presidential scandals, the Harding Memorial was not officially dedicated until 1931 when President Herbert Hoover presided.
President Hoover's dedication
On June 16, 1931, President Herbert Hoover gave a speech at the official dedication ceremony of the Warren G. Harding memorial. The following are excerpts from Hoover's eulogy:
Oversight
The Harding Memorial Association transferred ownership of the Harding Memorial to the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) in the 1980s. OHS undertook a full restoration in the mid-1980s and began to referred to the site officially, as the Harding Tomb, a better description of its function.
Following a reorganization, the Ohio Historical Society transferred day-to-day management of the memorial, and the Harding home, to Marion Technical College (MTC) in 2011. This arrangement reduced OHS's administrative burden, while allowing MTC to attend to the site. OHS retains ownership, and co-ordinates with MTC on major site issues.
The memorial is also important in American history because it is the last of the elaborate presidential tombs, a trend that began with the burial of President Abraham Lincoln in his tomb in Springfield, Illinois. Since President Calvin Coolidge, Harding's successor, presidents have chosen burial plot designs that are simpler, or combined those with their library sites.
Harding's dog Laddie Boy is not buried in the memorial with him. The dog is actually buried in Boston, Massachusetts and never lived in Marion.