Admission to Harding Presidential Sites is $16/adult, $15/senior, $8/student (6-17 years).
- Open: Typically early May to early November from 12-5 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday
- Location: (Map It) 380 Mt. Vernon Ave., Marion, Ohio
- Phone: 800-600-6894
- Web: click here
The Warren G. Harding Presidential Sites features the home and Presidential Library of Warren G. Harding. Collections encompass more than 5,000 original items, including 300 from the White House. Because most of what you’ll see in the home is original, you’ll get the feeling that Warren G. and Florence Harding have just stepped into the next room.
The Harding Home, the residence of Warren G. and Florence Harding from 1891 to 1921, has been open continuously as a museum since 1926. The museum opened just three years after President Harding died from a heart attack in 1923. Mrs. Harding died 15 months later from kidney disease. In her will, she made arrangements for the home and the bulk of the contents to go into the hands of the Harding Memorial Association (HMA).
The HMA formed just after President Harding’s death on Aug. 2, 1923 to oversee fundraising to construct the Harding Memorial. They owned the 10-acre Memorial site and the Harding Home until 1978, when both sites were turned over to the State of Ohio. The sites today are administered by the Ohio History Connection with the help of local manager Marion Technical College.
When the museum opened in February 1926, visitors could view just the first four rooms of the residence – the reception hall, parlor, library and dining room. The rooms were not presented as they were when the Hardings lived there; instead, all of the rooms featured glass display cases of objects. Photos and framed documents covered the walls. The on-site caretakers lived upstairs.
In 1965, the HMA completed a restoration of the Home, showcasing it for the first time as a house museum. The group chose 1900 as the year it wanted to depict, choosing wallpapers that reflected that year. The caretakers continued to perform the maintenance and lead tours but now lived off-site.
