Harding Tomb
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The Harding Tomb 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. Also known as the Harding Memorial, it was the last of the elaborate presidential tombs.
ConstructionEdit
Shortly after Harding 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. Among the list of contributors from the United States were an estimated 200,000 school children, who donated pennies towards the memorial.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The tomb is located in Marion, Ohio, at the southeast corner of Vernon Heights Boulevard and Delaware Avenue, just south of Marion Cemetery.
ArchitectureEdit
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 Template:Convert high and Template:Convert 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 Template:Convert in diameter and Template:Convert 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).<ref>McDowell, Peggy and Richard Meyer. The Revival Styles in American Memorial Art. p. 53. Popular Press. 1994.</ref> The open design honors the Hardings' wishes that they be buried outside, and is covered in ivy and other plantings.
BurialsEdit
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.
DedicationEdit
On June 16, 1931, President Herbert Hoover gave a speech at the dedication ceremony of the Warren G. Harding memorial. The following are excerpts from Hoover's eulogy:<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} – President Woodrow Wilson appointed Hoover to head the Food and Drug Administration in April 1917 during World War I. This is the department to which Hoover refers when he states he first met Harding in his "office".</ref>
OversightEdit
The Harding Memorial Association transferred ownership of the Harding Memorial to the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) in March 1979, after passage of state legislation authorizing the takeover.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> OHS undertook a federally-funded, $538,000 restoration in 1988,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and began to refer to the site as the Harding Tomb.
Following a reduction in state funding, the Ohio Historical Society transferred day-to-day management of the tomb and the nearby Harding Home to Marion Technical College (MTC) in April 2010.<ref name=cantontransfer>Template:Cite news</ref> OHS paid MTC $105,000 a year to run the two sites,<ref name=dispatchtransfer>Template:Cite news</ref> achieving a savings of about $60,000 annually.<ref name=cantontransfer /> MTC agreed to spend $20,000 in 2010 to help run the site.<ref name=dispatchtransfer /> OHS continues to co-ordinate with MTC on major site issues.<ref>Template:Cite news; Template:Cite news</ref>
The memorial is the last of the elaborate presidential tombs. This trend began with the burial of President Abraham Lincoln in his tomb in Springfield, Illinois. Since Harding, presidents have chosen burial plot designs that are simpler or combined those with their library sites.
See alsoEdit
- List of burial places of presidents and vice presidents of the United States
- Presidential memorials in the United States
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
Template:Warren G. Harding Template:NRHP in Marion County, Ohio Template:Authority control