Harding Memorial Dedication

Photo by Nathan Photos

On a partly cloudy day, 92 years ago, Warren Gamaliel Harding was finally given a fitting recognition with the dedication of a memorial in his name. Since his sudden death, eight years before in 1923 from a heart attack at age 57, Harding's reputation had lost some of the glitter and luster it had once had.

The ceremony on June 16, 1931, marked the culmination of nearly a decade of both spontaneous and organized efforts to erect a fitting memorial to Marion’s favorite son and the nation’s 29th president.

The day's setting couldn’t have been more pleasant. The air was warm and bright, with the temperature rising to the upper 70s. Although some overenthusiastic reports placed the crowd at 100,000, more reasonable observers estimated the number at 50,000 spectators, with another 10,000 lining the route. Whatever the total headcount might have been, everyone must have hoped to catch a glimpse of the then-current President Herbert Hoover and Hoover's immediate predecessor, Calvin ("Silent Cal") Coolidge, who had been Harding's laconic vice president. 

The only incident that marred the proceedings was that three airplanes circled and recircled the round open-roofed memorial, an occurrence that reportedly perturbed President Hoover.

The presentation of the monument to the Harding Memorial Association was made by former New Jersey Senator Joseph S. Frelinghuysen, the association’s president. The acceptance speech was handled by Calvin Coolidge, the association’s honorary president. President Hoover gave the dedication address.

Among the items interred in a stone during the dedication ceremony were: the copy of the Saturday Evening Post being read to President Harding on the night of his death by his wife, Florence; a copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence; a printer’s stick presented by Marion Typographical Union No. 675, and a copy of Harding’s last speech on his “Voyages of Understanding” tour across the United States to Alaska and back.

The 1931 dedication ceremony was, in one sense, the culmination of an eight-year movement to build and consecrate a monument to the late president. With Harding’s unexpected death on August 2, 1923, voluntary contributions started pouring in. Two months later, the Harding Memorial Association was begun with the stated purpose of “organizing this spontaneous movement.” More than a million persons contributed a total of $977,821.76. Included in that sum were the pennies collected by nearly a quarter of a million schoolchildren.

The groundbreaking was held on April 26, 1926, and 34 days later, the cornerstone-laying ceremony took place. The previous year a number of the nation’s leading architects had engaged in a competition to determine the best design for the monument. Selected were Henry H. Hornbostel and Eric Fisher Wood of Pittsburgh. Construction was completed in December 1927.

The circular monument, standing in the midst of 10 acres of landscaped ground, is 103 feet in diameter at the base and 52 feet in height. The 28-feet tall exterior columns are five feet in diameter at the base, tapering a bit at the top. Interior columns are two feet in diameter and 16 feet high.

Innovative design is a major reason for the vast appeal of the Harding Memorial. A circular design was chosen because artistically it “possesses no definite direction and no definite climaxes.” In contrast to most national monuments, there are no elaborate embellishments and no effigies. Only an inscription graces the inner wall. Other innovative touches are the drooping willow tree at the head of Mrs. Harding’s grave and the hanging garden. In addition, the absence of a roof produced an open court effect.
The monument, but for a few exceptions, consists entirely of Georgia white marble furnished by the Georgia Marble Company of Tate, Georgia. One variation is in the floor where the tessellation process is responsible for the gray and white mosaic coloring. The top of the cornices and the wall are covered with aluminum coping slabs and are the first of their kind ever used. The handrails and gateways are also aluminum.

It's truly one of America’s finer memorials but the question remains why did eight years pass between Harding’s death, the immediate response in public sentiment and effort (and funds), and ultimately the monument’s delayed dedication several years after the dead president and his wife were buried there.

Surely, a monument to a president could hardly be dedicated by anybody but a president, but, as an American historian put it at the time, “Harding’s successors seemed to find it inconvenient to come to Marion for the ceremony.”

The Harding administration scandals, the theory goes, had made a dedication trip to Marion an embarrassing proposition for Coolidge and, then, Hoover. The Harding Memorial Association itself passed a resolution in late 1930 to postpone indefinitely the dedication.

Other factors also figured in the delay. Memorializing is inevitably a slow procedure. The dedication for the Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., languished until President Franklin D. Roosevelt applied heavy pressure on Congress. Then, too, another factor was the stolid nature of the two leading figures in the Harding scenario. Calvin Coolidge and, to a lesser extent, Herbert Hoover weren’t ones to initiate a strong push for a program, or a policy, let alone a memorial dedication. To be fair, Hoover was saddled with the problems of the Great Depression. The dedication could hardly have been a top priority at that time.

In any case, the dedication was finally set for June 16, 1931, Will Rogers noted that it was a shame that the Harding dedication was put off until Republicans decided a presidential trip to Ohio would bolster the party’s faltering fortunes there.

Finally, a president who had been among the most popular ever was honored with a fitting memorial, even though it did take eight years to get it done. A reporter from The New York Times noted that the outpouring of public sentiment after Warren Harding’s death was “the most remarkable demonstration in American history of affection, respect, and reverence for the dead.” The Harding Memorial is the crowning touch to that demonstration.

The Harding Memorial Dedication was written by Tom Photos and edited by Richard Straw.