December 19, 1948 – Chauncey McCormick, the executor of the estate of Kate
Sturges Buckingham, announces that with the war won and materials once again
available, movement is being made on following Buckingham’s wish to construct a
great memorial to Alexander Hamilton. McCormick
says that about 20 possible locations for the memorial were surveyed in 1947,
and the number of sites has since been narrowed down to about seven. Trustees of the memorial fund are especially
interested in the site of the United States Courthouse in the block bounded by
Adams and Jackson on the north and south and Dearborn and Clark on the east and
west. (Imagine a nine-foot statue of the
founding father fighting for attention with Alexander Calder’s
“Flamingo”!) Buckingham established the
memorial fund for the tribute to Hamilton in 1928, and when she died in 1937
her will specified that if the memorial had not been started by December 14,
1947 the million dollars set aside for it would go to the Art Institute to use
as it wished; in 1947, therefore, the memorial trustees went to court and
obtained an order delaying the date for completion to January 1, 1953. The story of Buckingham’s desire for the
memorial to Hamilton is a long one and, to some, a tale with a less than
satisfactory ending. You can read more about it here. The photo above
shows the state of the memorial today.
Just a polished granite base remains at Diversey and Stockton. Hamilton has been missing for over a year
now, off somewhere being re-gilded. At least that's what the marker says.
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