William Howard Taft An Administrative History

The prospective sale of the Taft home did not go unnoticed by individuals interested in the life of William Howard Taft. The decision of Mrs. Louis K. DeBus to sell the property nearly coincided with the incorporation on July 7, 1937, of the William Howard Taft Memorial Association. The Memorial Association had been formed in 1934, but was unincorporated for three years. In the articles of incorporation, the stated purpose of the Memorial Association was "to plan, promote, erect, and collect funds for a national memorial in honor of William Howard Taft and to insure its perpetuation." [1] Memorial Association Vice President Carl Meier reported that the organization grew out of the Mt. Auburn Civic Association and the Taft School PTA. [2]

Once organized, the Memorial Association set about the task of acquiring the property. Well-publicized meetings were held to discuss methods for acquiring and maintaining the property. Buoyed by supportive gestures by private citizens and patriotic groups, the Memorial Association attracted the city's political and business leaders to its board. Even Mrs. DeBus advised her real estate agent, Mrs. Colter Rule, that she too was interested in the objectives of the Memorial Association and expressed a willingness to hold off sale of the property in order to cooperate with the organization's efforts.

Unfortunately for the Memorial Association, its plans to purchase the Taft home coincided with the efforts of Senator Robert A. Taft, eldest son of William Howard Taft, to seek the nomination as the Republican candidate for President of the United States. Key Taft family members decided that it would seem self-serving for the family to launch a fund raising effort for the Taft home at the same time that the Senator was attempting to secure the nomination. As Eric L. Schulte, Chairman of Taft's Campaign Committee put it, "There were fears that it [fund raising for Taft Memorial] might be construed as an effort to build up his political future'." [3]

With the absence of the Taft family's support and the rising numbers of offers by prospective purchasers, Mrs. DeBus set April 4, 1940, as the deadline for the Memorial Association to produce the $12,500 purchase price. The deadline passed without success on the part of the Memorial Association. Mrs. DeBus then sold the property on April 12, 1940, to Elbert R. Bellinger. Bellinger and his wife owned and occupied the adjoining house at 2030 Auburn Avenue, just to the south of the Taft home, formerly occupied by the Leopold Burkhardt family. Upon purchase of the property, Bellinger "notified the [Memorial] association that when it is able financially to negotiate the purchase, they are willing to negotiate the property." [4] Many years later, in 1970, Charles P. Taft II, youngest son of William Howard Taft, summed up his view of these events, "the property could have been acquired if they tried, but they didn't know how to do anything.. . . . it cost about $30,000 more than it would have if the ladies had been on the job." [5]

In the years following the purchase, Bellinger converted the home into apartments, claiming that he undertook the major conversion work in such a way that it could be removed without damaging the original features of the house. By the mid-1940s, the racial composition of Mt. Auburn changed. With weakening health, Bellinger considered alleviating some of his responsibilities by selling the Taft home to black undertakers who wanted to turn it into a funeral parlor. On the recommendation of his lawyer, however, Bellinger decided against the sale. In 1951, Bellinger sold the Burkhardt property to Hamilton County which razed it and constructed the Youth Detention Home. Bellinger and his wife then moved into the rear first floor apartment of the Taft home.

While the Taft home was in the secure, albeit not entirely sympathetic, hands of Bellinger, the Memorial Association and many Cincinnati citizens continued to harbor hope that someday they might be successful in acquiring the property as a memorial to Taft. One of the Memorial Association's members, Taft Public School principal Nelson L. Burbank, wrote in July 1948 to Waldo G. Leland, chairman of the Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings, and Monuments of the Department of the Interior, asking for his advice as to how to raise funds in order to restore the Taft home. [6] A. E. Demaray, Acting Director of the National Park Service, responded by suggesting that Burbank contact the American Association of Museums for advice on organizing a fund raising effort for house museum organizations. [7]

In 1949, the Memorial Association sent letters to prominent citizens asking their advice on the project. Among the citizens contacted was prominent Cincinnati architect Charles F. Cellarius. He declared that the undertaking was commendable and "should do honor to our city, as well as a great man, and President whom we revere." [8] The approaching centennial of William Howard Taft's birthday in 1957 set off a series of commemorative events, but the long sought objective still seemed far off.

The continued lobbying of the Memorial Association members and their sympathizers began to have an effect by the late 1950s. In 1959, National Park Service Historian Roy E. Appleman received a telephone call from the office of Ohio Congressman Gordon H. Scherer asking that the Taft home be included in the National Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings. This request was made in response to Scherer's constituents who wished to have the Taft home established as "a national historic site or memorial." Appleman agreed to schedule the study for 1961. [9]

By the late 1950s, obstacles in the way of the Taft family's active participation in preserving the Taft home faded. Senator Robert A. Taft died in 1953, one year after he lost the nomination of the Republican Party to Dwight D. Eisenhower. Charles Taft's own political future that shone so bright in the 1940s dimmed considerably a decade later. Charles Taft warmed up to the Taft legacy inherent in the house at 2038 Auburn Avenue.

Charles Taft was a natural to take charge of the Memorial Association. Born in 1897, he grew up in the privileged circumstances that surround children of political leaders. After receiving his law degree from Yale University in 1921, he returned to Cincinnati to practice law and embark on a political career. He participated in the formation of the City Charter group formed in 1925 to give the city non-partisan government. He eventually won a seat on the Cincinnati City Council in 1938. With the exception of several years devoted to wartime service, he remained on the City Council until his retirement in 1977. In 1952, he ran unsuccessfully in the Ohio gubernatorial race, losing to Frank J. Lausche. From 1955 to 1957, he served as mayor of the city. Although Taft's political career was identified primarily with Cincinnati, he moved easily in the company of the nation's top figures of both major political parties. His national political connections proved pivotal in working with the Congress on the Taft home in the late 1960s. His high-level associations were not as useful in later dealings with the National Park Service staff. [10]

Until the late 1950s, Charles Taft had not taken an active role in the work of the Memorial Association, although he and his wife were listed as honorary members. In 1965, several years after taking charge of the Memorial Association, Charles Taft recorded the sequence of events that led to his involvement with the Taft home.

The group you see on the letterhead is the remnants of the old days when the good PTA ladies from the William H. Taft Elementary School on Southern Avenue started this whole enterprise. With the best of intentions they really got nowhere until Ben Schwartz moved his Youth Center up to become the next door neighbor of the Alphonso Taft house. He then needed me to get into it. I had been quite unwilling to be out in front, and I still don't like it. [11]

Coupled with the greater interest expressed by Charles Taft were Bellinger's own offers to sell the property. In 1958, at seventy-six years of age, Bellinger appeared ready to strike a quick bargain. However, he professed impatience with the Cincinnati community's inability to come up with the $75,000 asking price, while the appraised value was $35,000. [12]

Still operating in the background, Charles Taft in 1958 discussed with Juvenile Court Judge Benjamin Schwartz of the Youth Detention Center the possibility that Hamilton County Commissioners purchase the house as a memorial. The Memorial Association would operate the first floor, while the Juvenile Court would use the second floor for offices. In Judge Schwartz's view, the connection between the Taft home and the Juvenile Court was mutually beneficial. He envisioned the house museum serving as "an inspiration for school children" who were served by the court. The maintenance of the house would benefit from the ongoing commitment of the county government. [13] To this scheme, Charles Taft offered the possibility that the family would pay for the rehabilitation.

Negotiations between the Taft family and the representatives of Bellinger's interests, Gordon Scherer and Leslie Cors, proceeded through 1959 and 1960. During that time, the role of Hamilton County as purchaser fell into abeyance. Charles Taft himself was prepared to offer Bellinger "a fair price for the property." Various family members offered a total of $25,000 towards restoration of the property with the expectation that the County Commissioners would take title to the property from Charles Taft, construct a passageway between the Taft home and the Juvenile Detention Center, pave the rear of the Taft home for parking, and maintain the property "in such a manner as to be a credit to the community." The Juvenile Detention Center would occupy the second floor of the house and have access to space in the basement. The Memorial Association would handle the furnishing of the historical elements of the house and maintain the first floor as the Taft Family Memorial.[14]

After extended negotiations, Charles Taft and Bellinger agreed to a plan whereby Bellinger gave the Association a 100-year lease on the property. For a six-month period following Bellinger's death, the Memorial Association could purchase it from his heirs for $35,000. He would maintain an apartment in the house for life and receive $250 per month. The Memorial Association also agreed to pay all taxes and utilities. By mid-1960, the lease had been signed by Bellinger and Taft. In late 1961, Taft assigned the lease to the Memorial Association.

With the property under the control of the Memorial Association, Charles Taft, who had become president of the organization in July 1960, began the process of planning for the restoration of the property. The Memorial Association contracted with the architectural firm of Wood & Kock to prepare working drawings and specifications for the restoration of the house and the remodeling of the basement for the caretaker, and to provide an estimate of the cost of restoration. [15] Through the daily newspapers, Charles Taft solicited from the public photographs of the house that might be used in the architectural studies.

In order to coordinate research efforts on the property, Charles Taft placed an advertisement in the Cincinnati Enquirer for an "able researcher wanted to do historical research." The requirements included intelligence, ability to cope with details, an eye and an ear for history, and typing skills. In the fall of 1960, Taft hired Willa Busch Beall, a freelance writer whose assets included an "insatiable curiosity about everything except battles, mathematics, and space travel." [16] Beall was hired as executive director of the Memorial Association on a part time basis. With Beall on board, Taft put out a call for letters, photographs, anecdotes, and other memorabilia associated with President Taft. Beall continued to work for the Memorial Association and Taft until mid-1964, when the organization committed its resources to the restoration effort.

After a year and a half on the job, Beall had immersed herself in Taft family history. However, because restoration had not yet begun and public visitations were a more remote possibility, she admitted to Taft that, "As I see it, I have been educating myself to be a source of information--an available one--since you, the interested member of the family with the information originally, are limited in availability. For practical purposes at present, I have gone far beyond the needs for research." [17]

By 1964, Charles Taft reported to the Memorial Association that the restoration of the house would cost $92,500 plus fees. Although the architects prepared working drawings for the entire house, Taft recommended that only the structural changes for the front portion of the house be undertaken in order to "avoid disturbing Bellinger's use of his apartment." [18]

In January 1964, Congressman Robert A. Taft, Jr. wrote Charles Taft that Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall announced the recognition of forty-eight historic properties as national historic landmarks. The national historic landmark program, an outgrowth of the 1935 Historic Sites Act, designated properties of national significance according to certain historical themes. Among the group of new national historic landmarks was the Taft house which logically fell under the theme of "Political and Military Affairs." [19] In the survey form, historic sites historian S. Sydney Bradford wrote:

America has produced few men who have led such a varied and successful life as William Howard Taft. Who else has been the Solicitor General of the United States, a Federal judge, an eminently successful proconsul in the American empire, a vigorous Secretary of War, a good President, and an excellent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court? And a Yale man? [20]

Congressman Taft's notice was followed by that of the National Park Service itself which informed Charles Taft that the Taft home had been found to "possess exceptional value in commemorating and illustrating the history of the United States." The bureau invited Charles Taft to apply for a certificate and bronze marker testifying to the property's status. [21]

Charles Taft quickly submitted the necessary papers for the National Historic Landmark certificate and plaque and asked that the plaque read "Alphonso Taft Home, birthplace of William Howard Taft." [22] By April, Secretary Udall signed the certificate. In informing Charles Taft of the certificate, Northeast Regional Director Ronald F. Lee suggested that a National Park Service representative present it to him. [23] Charles Taft decided to hold the plaque and certificate ceremony on September 15, 1964, on President Taft's birthday, at the William Howard Taft School on Southern Avenue, just around the corner from the Taft house.

On the appointed presentation day, the Taft house was surrounded by scaffolding placed there by workmen who were lowering the roofline to its original height and reinstating the widow's walk and the front porch. Roy E. Appleman from the Washington Office of the National Park Service was on hand to present the plaque and certificate Charles Taft presented a short speech at the ceremony, indicating the mutual interest between William Howard Taft and Cincinnati. "All of us are proud that he came from Cincinnati and he was proud of it. To the day he died, he always was interested in what was happening here. He would rejoice to know that the old house on Auburn Avenue has been acquired and is being restored to the way it was when he grew up there." [24] Only one hitch marred the celebration.

Alphonso was spelled "Alfonso." The plaque was later replaced with one with the correct spelling.

By the time of the presentation ceremony, the Taft family had contributed more than $70,000 to the restoration work. Another $200,000 was an endowment fund for its upkeep. [25]

With the first phase in the restoration completed, Charles Taft looked to various sources for additional funding. One possibility was an Ohio State bond issue which had been passed in November 1964. Taft noted that small sums from this source were targeted for the Rutherford B. Hayes Home in Fremont. Taft thought a $25,000 contribution from the fund would be appropriate. [26] This route proved unproductive. Taft also looked into the possibility of raising funds through the issuance of a commemorative coin. However, he found Treasury officials reluctant to request new coins in face of a coin shortage. In addition, W. Marvin Watson, Special Assistant to President Johnson, observed that "the House and Senate Committees which review such matters have indicated strong opposition to legislation providing for commemorative coins." [27]

Taft first considered having the Federal Government assume ownership of the Taft Home in 1965 when he wrote to Governor James A. Rhodes, "I rather hope that we can get the Federal government to take over the operation after we get the house restored." [28] This hope was further fanned by Taft's observation that the Department of the Interior had taken control of the President Herbert Hoover birthplace in West Branch, Iowa, renamed the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site. The act creating this site included an authorization of $1,650,000 to accept the house and enlarge the area and landscaping around it. As Taft wrote to Daniel R. Porter, director of the Ohio Historical Society:

The problem of continued operation after we get the house restored is one that concerns our donors for the restoration itself. I have talked to the Department of the Interior, and I was invited to the ceremony at which the Hoover Birthplace was taken over by the appropriate division of the department. I had thought, probably, that it would be wiser for us to go to Congress where I am sure we would have no real difficulty in securing the Federal sponsorship and management with our Taft Association as the supplementary promoter. [29]

In early 1966, Taft launched his campaign for the takeover of the Taft home by the Federal Government. His first contact was made with his former opponent for the governorship of Ohio, U.S. Senator Frank J. Lausche. Taft outlined the importance of the house, the recent restoration efforts, and the difficulty in raising private funds in the face of the cost of the remainder of the restoration work, estimated at $175,000, and of the cost of future upkeep of the property. Taft wrote, "When I saw the publicity on the take over of the Herbert Hoover Birthplace . . . that seemed to me a good solution." [30] Taft also sought the support of Congressmen John J. Gilligan and Donald D. Clancy and Senator Stephen M. Young, all of Ohio.

Other like-minded lawmakers joined the Ohio delegation in support. The most important of them was Congressman Fred Schwengel of Iowa who declared himself to be "very much in sympathy with you and your friends who want to bring about a solution to what appears a problem." [31] Schwengel also noted that "Ohio and the country have done more for McKinley than for William H. Taft. McKinley was a great man, but certainly not greater than your father." [32] In the following year, Schwengel was even more emphatic about President Taft, declaring him to be "one of the greatest men in all our history." [33]

By early 1967, the bill creating the William Howard Taft National Historic Site had been drafted by Charles Taft for Senator Lausche. Senator Young joined Senator Lausche in introducing the bill. Congressmen Clancy and Schwengel introduced companion bills in the House. Taft called upon Senator Alan H. Bible of Nevada of the National Parks and Recreation Subcommittee of the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee to support the measure. He. also appealed to Congressman Roy A. Taylor of North Carolina of the House Subcommittee on National Parks and Recreation.

As the legislative efforts were working their way through the appropriate Senate and House committees, the National Park Service stood ready to fulfill its own responsibilities in considering the legislation. George B. Hartzog, Jr., Director of the National Park Service, wrote to Charles Taft that the bureau needed to study the site to determine its suitability as a unit of the National Park System and then report to the Congress. [34]

Taft appealed to Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson for her support of his efforts for Federal stewardship. He even suggested that he might ask President Johnson to serve as Honorary Chairman of the Memorial Association. [35] Mrs. Johnson replied that "there has been no fixed Federal policy pertaining to the status to be accorded or the method of administering the sites of the birthplaces of our Presidents." However, she also stated:

It is equally clear that structures or sites associated importantly with their lives meet the criteria of being nationally significant in our history. I think all Americans should be interested in some program for preserving these sites. [36]

On February 28, 1967, Senator Lausche introduced the bill for the "Establishment of William Howard Taft National Historic Site." In the introduction of the bill, Senator Lausche listed the accomplishments of both William Howard and Alphonso Taft. He also cited the need for the bill in the insurmountable barriers encountered by the Memorial Association in completing the restoration of the house. [37] Although the bill carried strong congressional support, it languished for over a year until the National Park Service completed its studies and made its recommendations.

The most persistent obstacle to the Memorial Association's restoration plans was removed on December 15, 1967, with the death of Bellinger. Charles Taft borrowed the $35,000 purchase price, loaned it to the Memorial Association, and exercised the option to purchase the Taft home within the six months following Bellinger's death. Although the death of Bellinger meant that the Memorial Association could now proceed with the property's restoration, Charles Taft feared that one of his points arguing for a federal takeover had disappeared. As he wrote to members of his family in late 1967, "But meantime the bills will be for hearing in Congress [sic] and I'll do the best I can to get them to take it on as is. My best argument is gone--that we can't go ahead because only the government could take the old man's interest, not we." [38]