He endeared himself to late Victorian America through his Christian piety and his devotion to his wife, Ida, who suffered from epilepsy and became a virtual invalid after the loss of their two infant daughters.
Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him in office. After his assassination, McKinley was venerated as a national martyr, one many Americans believed should have a fitting architectural tribute.
An invited design competition was held in with New York architect Harold Van Buren Magonigle, a proponent of Beaux-Arts classicism, selected the winner. The memorial occupies a acre site in a public park northwest of downtown Canton and consists of a domed and granite-clad mausoleum at the summit of a terraced hill rising at the far end of a long, narrow lawn.
He established a gradual transition in scale from the urban grid of the city to the formal axis of the memorial. When approaching the memorial from the park entrance, the white granite tomb is always in view, the focal point of the site and the visitor's ultimate goal. A 1,foot-long approach road rises gently to a plaza at the foot of the hill. Architectural forms are gradually introduced into the landscape: around the plaza, hedges join granite retaining walls, planted with ivy to unite them with the turf.
The building and hill together form a pyramid, an effect that is made more emphatic by four flights of broad stairs each with steps that lead from the plaza to the terrace. On the middle landing of the stairs to the tomb stands a 9. The mausoleum thus stands at the junction of sword and cross. The circles of the concentric terraces seem to form halos around this symbolic nexus of military strength and Christian virtue.
The cylindrical tomb is based on a range of precedents including the renowned Roman mausoleums of the first century: the mausoleum of Cecilia Metella on the Appian Way, and the mausoleums of emperors Hadrian and Augustus. In particular, Magonigle referenced how prehistoric tumuli gradually evolved into mausoleums as stone facings were added to earthen mounds over the centuries.
Duncan , another mausoleum for a Civil War veteran and president. Encircling the drum is an exterior frieze of thick ivy garlands, an ancient emblem of eternity and constancy. Inside are inverted torches symbolic of death and wing-spread eagles resting on the keystones at the center of the niches that encircle the tomb.
In , a depressed lawn replaced the pool, but the sword effect remains. Colored marble laid in a cross pattern forms the floor of the mausoleum. The bodies of McKinley and his wife lie side by side in two polished, dark-green, granite sarcophagi, resting atop a ten-foot-square of polished dark maroon granite in the center of the space. Their two young daughters are also laid to rest here. Three semi-circular arched bays encircle the central chamber.
The entablature and frieze extending around the bottom of the dome contain words from McKinley's last speech. A project through the Save America's Treasures Grant Program , which helps preserve nationally significant historic properties and collections, funded preservation work at the McKinley Memorial in Explore This Park.
The final resting place for President William J. McKinley, Canton, Ohio. The answer is quite simple. While the President was born in Niles, Ohio, he called Canton home. After his death, it was fitting that the President be laid to rest in the city where his career began, the place where he found his true love and ran for the highest office in the land. Day and Ohio Senator Marcus Hanna, met to discuss the location of a proper memorial to serve as a final resting place.
The site chosen was often visited by McKinley. At one time, he even had suggested that a monument to soldiers and sailors from Stark County be placed there. The first order of business was to purchase the site, owned at the time by the West Lawn Cemetery. Ohio Governor George K. Large numbers of school children contributed to the memorial fund, and the Association was able to purchase the proposed site. Construction of the memorial began on June 6, when Mr.
Magonigle removed the first shovel of soil from the site.
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