Buchanan Statue is Due To Arrive in Capital Today
Heroic Bronze Centerpiece to Be Placed on Base in Meridian Park.
SCULPTOR ON GROUND TO SUPERVISE SETTING
Monument Made Possible Through Will of Former President's Niece, Who Was His Hostess.
Arrangements were made today to hoist into position the bronze statue of President Buchanan in the space in the middle left for it in the completed memorial that sets in the southeast corner of Meridian Hill Park. The statue left New York by truck yesterday and was expected to arrive in Washington during the day.
George M. Rullman of the Baltimore firm of Rullman & Wilson, the contractors, got up steam in his hoisting engine during the morning and prepared to swing the boom to Fifteenth street and pick up the statue and set it in place. Hans Schuler of Baltimore, the sculptor, arranged to be present at the setting in place of the Buchanan statue. William Gordon Beecher of Baltimore, the architect, collaborated with Mr. Schuler in designing the memorial.
Side Figures in Place.
Symbolical of law and diplomacy, in which President Buchanan was considered adept, the two side figures are already in place. The blocks of stone out of which they were carved weighed 20 tons each before they were roughed out, and now the completed figures weigh 8 tons each and took four years to carve. There are five pieces of stone of 15 tons in the central portion of the memorial.
Mr. Rullman has had 130 tons of pig-iron placed on each leg of his hoisting apparatus to swing the statue into place. The iron was secured from the navy yard.
The Buchanan Memorial is expected to be unveiled in October and President Hoover is to participate in the ceremonies, according to tentative plans, with prominent officials of Pennsylvania, where Buchanan lived.
Fund Left by Niece.
The monument has been made possible by the will of Mrs. Harriet Lane Johnston, one-time mistress of the White House as Buchanan's niece and a well known social figure in Washington. Gen. Lawrason Riggs of Baltimore, representing the trustees, has had a major part in the preparation of the plans for the erection of the memorial.
The Buchanan Memorial will look out upon a beautiful setting in the lower garden of Meridian Hill Park, which is rapidly nearing completion. A cascade is to flow down from the upper portion of the park and a pool has been completed in the lower section of the garden. The project has received the indorsement and approval of the Fine Arts Commission, and Lieut. Col. U. S. Grant, 3d, director of the office of Public Buildings and Public Parks, has been prominent in arranging plans for the location of the memorial.
Buchanan Statue is Due To Arrive in Capital Today., The Washington Evening Star July 30, 1929 Page 17. (PDF)