October 31, 2009: President Warren Harding's Home

The main event for today was seeing the home of the 29th President, Warren Harding (1921 - 1923). As my historical focus is from before the Civil War (and even then, focused more on the Antebellum period), he's an obscure president even to me. But, the tour was quite interesting.

I have gone to some presidential homes (Harry Truman in 2008, Andrew Johnson in 2008, Franklin Pierce in 2004) and gotten an "exclusive" tour simply because nobody else came for a tour at that time. I expected the same in this case. But, several other people were there for a tour.

As is usually the case for any presidential home, the tour guide was a staunch supporter of her subject. I know little about Harding but apparently, he was revered at the time he died. (Note that Harding died in office. He was succeeded by Calvin Coolidge. According to the displays at this home, Coolidge won re-election because he continued Harding's policies. If you visit Coolidge's home in Plymouth, Vermont, Coolidge won re-election because of his own actions.) Harding apparently had one affair with a woman from Marion, OH, but the rumors about numerous affairs are evidently false. According to the guide, shortly after he died, he was savagely attacked. Various cabinet members blamed each other and thus the stories took on a life of their own. Research in the 1960s showed the many rumors to be false.

Harding was an American success story. He was not rich but worked his way up. He was involved in the newspaper business. Due to that experience, he was a wordsmith, giving himself an advantage in political campaigns. Like previous successful Ohio-born presidential candidates (Hayes, Garfield, and Benjamin Harrison -- who campaigned from Indiana), he did a "front porch campaign." The press came to him and heard his speeches from his front porch. A photo in the house shows hundreds of people present for one of the speeches, spilling out into the street. He had a small building constructed from a Sears kit and placed behind the house. It cost $1,000. This is now the Harding Museum and Gift Shop.

The Hardings really liked dogs. There is a painting of one of their dogs and two collars in the house (one from the dog featured in the painting). The dog they had at the White House was named Laddie Boy and was a celebrity. Toys were made to resemble him (one of which was displayed at the house) and the president received lots of questions from children about the dog. He did a "newspaper interview" with Laddie Boy.

The election of 1920 was the first presidential election in which women could vote. Harding was a U.S. Senator from Ohio at the time and was one of the first group of senators to be directly elected (previously, state legislators chose senators). His opponent was the governor of Ohio, James Cox. So, no matter what, the president to succeed Woodrow Wilson would be from Ohio. (Numerous presidents have been from OH and Harding is currently the most recent.) Cox's running mate was none other than FDR. While Harding had crowds coming to see him, Cox toured the country. Cox received a speeding ticket when he campaigned in Marion. Harding focused on people in the small towns while Cox focused on people in the big cities.

The house originally cost around $3,500. It was decorated for Halloween inside. Children from the area were going to do their trick or treating in each room with costumed volunteers from the historical society to give out candy. Anyway, as we did the tour, it was easy enough to ignore the Halloween decorations in each room.

The house was very interesting. Most of it was in Victorian Age style, but two rooms had a more modern look specifically for the 1920 campaign. Almost everything was original. Florence Harding died just about a year after her husband. She specifically asked that the house become available for tours. The first tours started in 1924.

The Hardings were very supportive of the troops (World War I had ended only a couple of years before). Florence Harding frequently spent time with the troops in military hospitals and had a standing order that troops got flowers before the White House.

While the Hardings were in the White House, they rented their home out to make sure it was occupied. News was not instantaneous in those days. On August 2nd, the day Harding died, a clock happened to stop at that exact moment. The renters wound the clock but learned later that this was the moment Harding died. In subsequent years, the clock has occasionally happened to stop at that exact time on August 2nd. However, it hasn't happened in more recent years. They do check each year, however.

After finishing the Harding tour, I headed towards Springfield, IL. There was about ninety minutes of driving that was not on an interstate. I saw some beautiful small farms along the way. I had to drive through Indiana, passing right through Indianapolis. Even on the interstates in Indiana there were some nice looking farms. It was sunny so I had a nice view along the way. I stopped about ten miles east of Indianapolis for dinner.

At this point, I've really gotten into "touring mode." Yesterday, I was exhausted. Today, the long drive was quite enjoyable.


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October 30, 2009 - New Adventure

Today I begin a new adventure. I'm planning to visit parts of the Midwest and South. I haven't been to the Midwest in over a year. The major highlights of the trip include the homes of Presidents Warren Harding (Marion, OH) and Abraham Lincoln (Springfield, IL), Branson, Missouri, to see some of their Christmas shows, and hopefully Texas. I have never been to Texas before.

This trip poses a new challenge from before. Rental car prices are higher than last year. So, time was limited. The challenge is: squeeze a lot of places into such limited time. This is more ambitious in terms of drive time than I have done before. But, I think I was definitely condition for it with last year's cross country trip.

The first stop on today's trip was the Basilica of Our Lady of Victory in Lackawanna, NY. This is a gorgeous church which has lifesize Stations of the Cross. There are numerous other carvings, small stained glass windows, statues, paintings, etc. The lighting is not the best and thus photos do not due it justice.

I last visited the Basilica in November, 2005, and have wanted to go back for years. At that point, I had an old digital camera which did poorly with indoor photos in a low light situation. My new camera did much better. I will have some photos posted soon.

After visiting the Basilica, I drove to Marion, OH. The total drive time (from home to Marion, OH) was about ten hours and approximately 600 miles.


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Why did I drive so far in one day? Warren Harding's home is in Marion, OH and had limited tours due to a Halloween party happening that day. This was the last day the house would have public tours this year. I didn't want to stop at a hotel two hours away and then encounter some sort of traffic delay that might cause me to miss the tour. The Harding home was about ten minutes from my hotel.

I have lots of free hotel points to use up. The Comfort Inn hotel in Marion took the bare minimum number of points (despite costing $80/night if I had to pay for it) and had excellent feedback on TripAdvisor.com. After seeing my room, I would say those ratings were correct. So, the long drive was definitely worth it.