A wealthy Chicago spinster named Kate Buckingham had two consuming interests: art and Alexander Hamilton. Regarding Hamilton as "one of the least appreciated of the great Americans," she decided to build him an eye-catching memorial. To this end she set aside $1,000,000 of the fortune her father, Ebenezer Buckingham, had made in banking and grain elevators. Before her death in 1937, Kate commissioned a heroic statue of Hamilton from Sculptor John Angel, and was considering as its setting a monumental eye catcher, designed by Finnish Architect Eliel Saarinen, with four 80-ft. fluted granite...
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