We live in Marion, Ohio, former home of President Warren G. Harding. While Harding may be gone, the home goes on without him. Tammy World wanted to show you the home.
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| The sign in the front yard. The curved sidewalk leads up the the front steps. |
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| It was freezing cold and very windy! |
We have toured the home. You might have read about that in a post on a yard sale a few years ago, where I mentioned us taking Ken's siter and her husband to the Harding home when they were visiting from England. I had an interesting story to tell in that post:
"The house has some replaced wall paper,(**Addition: It's a reproduction of the original paper, as close as they can get it.), but otherwise it looks pretty much like it did when Harding died in 1923. (That suits me fine. I could move right in, but I think the historical society would have a problem with that...) It's furnished and decorated almost 100% with items that actually belonged to the President and his wife. The things were all put in storage when the Hardings went to Washington, and since the president died in office and his wife couldn't bear to go back to the house, the things stayed there. There are lots of rumours about the house being haunted by Mrs. Harding, but our guide assured us that none of the people working there had ever seen anything. I was disappointed by that! While I don't wish Mrs. Harding the misery of walking the Earth for eternity, it would be interesting. As it was, the most interesting part was the clock on the stair landing. It was a wedding gift to the Hardings, and was hung on the stair landing before the wedding. Since then it has stopped only a handful of times: at the exact moment of Harding's death, and on that minute on the 50th anniversary of his death, and one other random time. The staff of the home these days make an evening of the anniversary of Harding's death every year, sitting around the clock, waiting for something to happen. Or, in this case, stop happening. Well, the clock has stopped one other time: while we were there! The minute was right for the time Harding died, but not the hour. Hmm."
The Hardings had the house built in 1890-91. In 1891 they were married, and moved into the house, where they would live for the next 30 years.
Harding started his campaign for president on the front porch of the house in 1920.
These days, when you tour the house, you are welcome to sit on the porch.
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| In the summer there are wicker chairs on the porch, in the space to the right of Tammy's head. |
The front porch has beautiful tiles, which unfortunately are in need of repair.
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| Move Tammy! We can't see the tiles! |
The house was restored in 1965, and an addition the Hardings made to the kitchen was torn down, to make the house more original. Kind of silly, since it was the Hardings who put it on, and they're the whole reason the house matters so much in the first place. The house was restored again in 2020, and the addition was rebuilt. But since there was nothing to show how the addition was used, it is just the wheelchair access to the house, and not completely recreated.
Tammy liked the side porch.
The back yard was once a parking lot, but was returned to being a back yard during the 2020 restoration. Some of the features, like the arbour, the horseshoe pitch, and the sentry house had to be recreated. The Press House, built from a catalog kit, is the original.
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| It's the little yellow house on the left, just to the left of the green arbour. |
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| The house was built from a kit, and was to allow a work place for the many reporters covering Harding's front porch campaign. Since Harding owned the biggest newspaper in town, I imagine he got pretty good coverage. |
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| A view of the Press House, on the left. the other house is next door, and not part of the Harding home, The green steps are the back steps of the Harding house. |
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| The press house has a nice little porch, complete with rocking chairs. |
Also in the back yard is this little fella.
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| This little building was built for one of the police guards that watched over Harding. There was also one on the front curb. this one is a replica. |
The back yard is also where Harding had his horseshoe pitch.
Horseshoes used to be a popular game, when horseshoes were readily available. My mom's family played horseshoes, so I've played it myself. It's sort of a ring toss type game, where the best shot is to get the horseshoe around a post. It's not as easy as you might think. And, horseshoes are heavy.
Next door to the Harding home, and sharing the yard, is the former home of George Christian, Harding's press secretary. His house was used as the Republican headquarters during Harding's campaign.
You can see the Harding Home website HERE.
That's it for day six of the Twelve Days of Tammy World. Tomorrow Tammy will show you some other Historic sites around town
