Harding Memorial
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The Harding Memorial is the burial location of President Warren G. Harding and First Lady Florence Kling Harding and is located in Marion, Ohio at the southeast corner of Vernon Heights Boulevard and Delaware Avenue.
Begun in 1926 and finished in the early winter of 1927, the structure is built of white marble. Designed by Henry Hornbostel, Eric Wood and Edward Mellon, the structure is 103' in diameter and 53' in height. The open design honors the Hardings’ wishes that they be buried outside.
At their deaths, the bodies of the Hardings were entombed in the “receiving vault” of the Marion Cemetery. Once the Harding Memorial was completed in 1927, the bodies were reinterred in the Memorial’s sarcophagus and it was sealed. The Harding Memorial was dedicated in 1931 by President Herbert Hoover.
Ownership of the Harding Memorial was transferred from the Harding Memorial Association to the Ohio Historical Society in the 1980s. A full restoration was undertaken in the mid 1980’s.
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 James A. Garfield in 1881 in Lake View Cemetery. Since President Calvin Coolidge, Harding's successor, Presidents have chosen burial plot designs that are simpler, or combined those with their library sites.
A popular myth with the residents of Marion is that Harding's dog Laddie Boy is buried in the memorial with him. The dog is actually buried in Boston, Massachusetts. The dog was reported to have not wanted to be associated with Harding or his scandals in the afterlife.
