Harold Van Buren Magonigle

Who was Harold Van Buren Magonigle?

Harold Van Buren Magonigle was an American architect, artist, and author best known for his memorials. He achieved his greatest success as a designer of monuments, but his artistic practices included sculpture, painting, writing, and graphic design.

Born in New Jersey, Magonigle worked for Calvert Vaux, Rotch & Tilden, Schickel and Ditmars and McKim Mead & White before opening his own practice in 1903. He was the designer of the McKinley Memorial Mausoleum in Canton, Ohio and the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri both commissions won through competitions. He designed the Core Mausoleum at Elmwood Cemetery.

Magonigle and sculptor Attilio Piccirilli collaborated as architect and artist on two familiar monuments in New York City: the Monument to the USS Maine in Columbus Circle, and on the Fireman's Memorial on Riverside Drive and West 100th Street. He also designed the setting for Albert Weinert's Stevens T. Mason Monument in Detroit, Michigan, and for Robert Atken's Burritt Memorial in New Britain, Connecticut.