M’Kinley Memorial

     To McKim, Mead & White, New York City, have been awarded the prize of $1,000 for the design of a memorial to William McKinley, to be erected at his birth place, Niles, Ohio. The judges for the competition were Edgerton Swartout and Charles A. Platt, New York City, and Edward B. Green, of Buffalo, N. Y. Mr. Platt is an architect as well in landscape gardens as in buildings. Mr. Swartout was the designer of the Washington Memorial building, and Mr. Green planned the Museum of Fine Arts in Buffalo. The cost of the building will be approximately $200,000, which has been raised by national subscription by the active work of the McKinley Memorial Association, organized in 1911 for the purpose. The city of Niles made a bond issue for $150,000 with which to purchase property in order to create a suitable site for the memorial. The “square” at Niles will be converted into a park and carefully landscaped. In its center will be erected the memorial which will be a long, low building of white marble. Seen from the approach on Main street [sic], the building will be dominated by its central feature, a colonnade or propylaea leading into a court of honor.
     This court, the atrium of the old Roman palaces where the statue of the household god stood, is the climax of the entire structure. It is to be modeled in careful detail as well as in general construction after the old Pompeiian atria. In the middle of the court there is to be the sunken pool which was the feature of every Roman house of any pretensions. Surrounding the court there will be a peristyle of Greek Doric columns, especially made for the reception of the statue of President McKinley.
     This statue, the sculptor of which has not yet been announced, is to be of heroic size and to be executed in bronze. It will be visible between the open columns of the facade which form the only entrance to the court, from a considerable distance on the main street.
     The aisle formed by the peristyle is designed to receive additional works of sculpture, but the chief feature will be a series of memorial tablets to the donors of the building, the statuary and other works of art. The treatment of these tablets is planned to be a departure from the accepted form. Behind the peristyle the walls are to have a band of mosaic in dull Pompeiian colors, but this, both in design and color, will be simple and severe.
     The auditorium occupies the right wing of the building on the opposite side is the library [sic].