J. Horace Harding

James Horace Harding (July 13, 1863 – January 4, 1929)[1] was an American banker, financier and art collector.

J. Horace Harding
Born
James Horace Harding

(1863-07-13)July 13, 1863
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedJanuary 4, 1929(1929-01-04) (aged 65)
New York City, New York, U.S.
OccupationFinancier
Spouse(s)
Dorothea Elizabeth Allen Barney
​
​
(m. 1898; his death 1929)​
ChildrenCharles Barney Harding
Catherine Harding Tailer
Laura Barney Harding
William Barclay Harding
Parent(s)William White Harding
Catherine Badger Hart
RelativesJesper Harding (grandfather)

Early life

Harding was born on July 13, 1863 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was a son of publisher William White Harding and Catherine Badger (née Hart) Harding.[2] Among his siblings was sister Jessie Harding (wife of Alfred Hennen Morris), and brothers Edward Harding and William G. Harding,[3] who Horace provided support for in his will.[4]

His paternal grandparents were Maria (née Wilson) Harding and Jesper Harding, who had owned The Pennsylvania Inquirer and National Gazette.[5] After his grandfather retired from publishing in 1859, his father became publisher and changed the paper's name to The Philadelphia Inquirer. His uncle, George Harding, became a patent lawyer and argued several cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. His maternal grandparents were James Hankinson Hart and Catherine Louise (née Badger) Hart.[2]

Career

Harding entered the banking field when he was twenty years old.[1] After his 1898 marriage, he entered the New York banking investment firm of Charles D. Barney & Co. The firm was founded by Barney in 1873 after his father-in-law's firm, Jay Cooke & Company went under during the Panic of 1873. Upon Barney's retirement in 1907, Harding ran the business under the same name, as senior partner, with Henry E. Butler, Jay Cooke III (his wife's cousin who was the former Republican National Committeeman),[6] and Charles S. Phillips.[7] In 1919, he stepped down as senior partner and became a special partner. In 1938, Charles D. Barney & Co. and Edward B. Smith & Co. merged to form Smith, Barney & Co.[8]

In November 1923, he succeeded Burns D. Caldwell (former president of Wells Fargo & Company) as chairman of the board of the American Express Company, having been closely associated with George C. Taylor during the founding of the company and being a member of the board of the executive committee ever since.[1] Harding also served as a director of the American Exchange Irving Trust Company, the American Gas and Electric Company, the Cerro de Pasco Copper Company, the Continental Can Company, the Public Service Corporation of New Jersey, the Southern Pacific Company, the United States Industrial Alcohol Company, the Ann Arbor Railroad, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, the New York, Ontario and Western Railway, the Wabash Railway, the New York Municipal Railways System, and was a trustee of the American Surety Company.[1]

Personal life

In 1898, Harding was married to Dorothea Elizabeth Allen Barney (1871–1935). She was a daughter of Charles D. Barney and Laura (née Cooke) Barney, a daughter of Philadelphia financier Jay Cooke.[9] They were the parents of four children:[10]

Harding died of influenza on January 4, 1929 at 955 Fifth Avenue, his townhouse in Manhattan (later replaced by a Rosario Candela designed apartment building).[1][20][21] After a funeral at St. Bartholomew's Church on Park Avenue, he was buried at Saint Paul's Episcopal Churchyard in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.[3] He left his fortune to his family.[4] His widow died in 1935.[22]

Art collection
Portrait of Victor Guye by Francisco de Goya, 1810.

Harding "was long interested in art and devoted considerable of his time to the work of the Frick collection,"[1] and served as a trustee of the art that was bequeathed to New York City by his friend, Henry Clay Frick.[3][23][24] In 1912, the Hardings returned to New York from Liverpool aboard the Mauretania after touring Egypt with Frick. Frick, who was supposed to sail with them, relinquished his berth at the last moment and decided to stay in London where he purchased two Paolo Veronese canvases, Allegory of Virtue and Vice and Allegory of Wisdom and Strength, for which Frick paid Knoedler & Co $200,000.[25]

They owned the Portrait of Mrs. Freeman Jr. by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of Margaretta Henrietta, Lady Hepburn (wife of Sir George Buchan-Hepburn) by Sir Henry Raeburn,[26] St. Paul by Doménikos Theotokópoulos (known as El Greco), and Miss Julia Mott by Thomas Gainsborough[27] In 1916, Harding purchased the 1810 portrait of Victor Guye by Francisco de Goya. In 1941, this painting, and others from his collection were sold in 1941 by his children via Parke-Bernet.[28] The Goya portrait was bought by William Nelson Cromwell for the National Gallery of Art.[29]

In 1927, he commissioned Oswald Birley to make a portrait of President Plutarco Elías Calles of Mexico, which he presented to the Mexican government.[1]

Legacy

Harding supported the development of Long Island's roadways and was a proponent of Robert Moses' parkway plan. He personally commissioned engineering studies to promote the construction of a highway from Queens Boulevard to Nassau County, in order to provide better access to Oakland Country Club, where he was a member and avid golfer. The road was built during Mayor Jimmy Walker's administration and was opened in 1928 as Nassau Boulevard.[30]

In 1917, he paid $100,000 for the construction of Harding Road, to connect Broad Street in Red Bank with Ridge Road in Rumson, in Monmouth County, New Jersey.[31][12] He was also a member of the board of governors of the Long Branch Hospital since 1914.[3]

In May 1929, four months after Harding's death, the road was named Horace Harding Boulevard in his honor. In 1939, the New York City Council proposed renaming Horace Harding Boulevard to Worlds Fair Boulevard due to the New York World's Fair, but Mayor Fiorello La Guardia refused to remove the name of his friend.[32] Today, it is the section between Queens Boulevard and the Queens-Nassau county line of the Long Island Expressway and is known as New York State Route 25D.[33]

He was also the namesake of the Horace Harding Hospital in Elmhurst, Queens (later renamed St. John's Hospital before it closed in March 2009)[34][30] and Horace Harding Playground, located in the Queens neighborhood of Rego Park.[35] There is also a bas-relief bust of Harding on a three-sided parcel of land at the intersection of Harding Road and Ridge Road in Little Silver, near Thornton, Harding's summer home in Rumson, New Jersey.[36]

References
  1. "J. HORACE HARDING, BANKER, DIES AT 65; Director in Many Corporations Had Been Ill Only Since New Year's Night. INFLUENTIAL IN FINANCE He Aided Plans for Beautification of Long Island--Trustee of Frick Art Collection". The New York Times. 5 January 1929. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  2. Hart, Thomas (1920). A Record of the Hart Family of Philadelphia: with a genealogy of the family, from its first settlement in America ; augmented by notes of the Collateral Branches, 1735-1920. p. 122. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  3. "J. HORACE HARDING DEAD. Rumson Road Resident Was A Prominent Financier" (PDF). Red Bank Register. 1929. p. 14. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  4. "J.H. HARDING LEFT FORTUNE TO FAMILY; Banker's Will Gives Residue to Widow After $1,300,000 Trusts for Children. MUNGER ESTATE $1,500,000 Jersey Importer Bequeaths More Than $900,000 to Charity-- Sister Receives Balance. H.C. Munger Will Aids Charity. Funds Left fo Jersey Hospitals. J.W. Kay Estate Put at $1,587,891". The New York Times. 19 January 1929. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  5. "A BIG SOCIETY EVENT.; ALFRED H. MORRIS OF WEST CHESTER MARRIED TO MISS JESSIE HARDING" (PDF). The New York Times. May 1, 1889. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  6. "CHANGES IN CORPORATIONS.; Jay Cooke Succeeds J. Horace Harding on New Haven Board". The New York Times. 16 January 1929. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  7. "Broker Charles D. Barney to Retire". The New York Times. 18 June 1907. Retrieved 9 July 2020.
  8. "TWO WALL ST. FIRMS TO BE MERGED SOON; Edward B. Smith & Co. and Chas. D. Barney & Co. Will Join Forces About Jan. 1 BOTH BIG UNDERWRITERS Consolidated Concern Will Be Called Smith, Barney & Co.Organized in Philadelphia Purpose of Merger Founded in Philadeiphia". The New York Times. 10 December 1937. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  9. Hutto, Richard Jay (2006). Their Gilded Cage: The Jekyll Island Club Members. Indigo Custom Publishing. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-9770912-2-5. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  10. Preston, Eugene Dimon (1990). Genealogy of the Barney family in America. Barney Family Historical Association. p. 112. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  11. Treaster, Joseph B. (3 November 1979). "Charles Barney Harding, a Financier, Is Dead at 80; A Distinguished Family Chairman in '40 and '4l". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  12. Gabrielan, Randall (2003). Rumson: Shaping a Superlative Suburb. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-2398-9. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  13. "Obituary 2". The New York Times. 4 April 1922. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  14. "MISS HARDING WEDS L. SUFFERN TAILER; Granddaughter of the Late C.D. Barney Is a Bride at St. Bartholomew's. CAPT. MATHIS WEDS HERE Aviator and Miss MacConnell Are Married in Church of Transfiguration--Miss Katz a Bride". The New York Times. 7 April 1921. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  15. TIMES, Special Cable to THE NEW YORK (20 April 1929). "BRITAIN MOURNS LOSS OF GREAT FINANCIER; Revelstoke's Services for Nation Were Many--Restored the Firm of Baring Brothers. Well Posted on America. Was Privy Concilor. Compared to J.P. Morgan. Was Member of Privy Council. Brothers Served in War. An Oarsman at Eton". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  16. Times, Special to The New York (18 October 1929). "HEIRESS QUITS STAGE AS IDENTITY IS KNOWN; Laura Harding Had Taken Maid's Role in Play at a Chicago Theatre". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  17. Mann, William J. (2007). Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn. Henry Holt and Company. p. 149. ISBN 978-1-4299-2197-8. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  18. "CONSTANCE FOX WED TO W.B. HARDING; Ceremony in Italian Garden of the Ambassador Arranged to Represent a Chapel. MGR. LAVELLE OFFICIATES Bridal Procession Passes Through Floral Lane--Choir of St. Patrick's Cathedral Sings. Father Escorts the Bride The Bridal Attendants. Reception in Ballroom". The New York Times. 31 May 1929. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  19. "William Barclay Harding Dead; Chairman of Smith, Barney, 60; He Helped Realign Structure of Many Corporations Interested in Aviation". The New York Times. 1 July 1967. Retrieved 10 July 2020.
  20. "J. Horace Harding Residence - New York City". www.nycago.org. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  21. "APARTMENT TO RISE AT 955 5TH AVENUEE; 15-Story Structure Planned as Residence of Late J. Horace Harding Is Purchased". The New York Times. 10 August 1937. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  22. "MRS. J. H. HARDING, 63, ARTS PATRONESS, DIES; Widow of Former Chairman of Board of American Railway Express Company". The New York Times. 24 February 1935. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  23. "Portrait of a Prelate with a Book". arcade.nyarc.org. Frick Art Reference Library. 1519. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  24. Harding, J. Horace. "The collection of the late J. Horace Harding [held at] 654 Madison Avenue, New York City". catalog.hathitrust.org. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  25. "Veronese's Allegories: Virtue, Love, and Exploration in Renaissance Venice April 11 through July 16, 2006". www.frick.org. The Frick Collection: Exhibitions. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  26. "Sir Henry Raeburn, R.A. (1756-1823) , Portrait of Margaretta Henrietta, Lady Hepburn, three-quarter-length, seated, in a white dress and a green shawl, her left arm resting on a table". www.christies.com. Christie's. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  27. "MRS. HARDING LEFT $2,400,542 ESTATE; $55,000 Painting by Reynolds in Collection of Widow of Frick Art Trustee. HER $1,662,855 GIFT TAXED W.D. Hutton, Broker, Bequeathed $104,242, and Miss Elsie Earle $59,771". The New York Times. 25 February 1936. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  28. Galleries, Parke-Bernet (1941). Important Art Property from the Collection of the Late J. Horace Harding ...: Public Sale, March 1 ... Parke-Bernet Galleries. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  29. "Victor Guye". www.nga.gov. National Gallery of Art. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  30. Scotchie, Joe (15 September 2019). "Horace Harding: More Than A Big Wheel". Long Island Weekly. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  31. "WHERE HAVE I SEEN THIS?". www.redbankgreen.com. Red Bank Green. 7 April 2011. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  32. "BOULEVARD KEEPS NAME; Mayor Balks at Redesignation of Horace Harding Highway". The New York Times. 8 December 1938. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  33. "Who The Heck Was Horace Harding?". Bayside-Douglaston, NY Patch. 16 August 2011. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  34. "NEW HOSPITAL DEDICATED; Horace Harding in Queens Is First Built Here Since War". The New York Times. 30 March 1947. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  35. "Horace Harding Playground Highlights". www.nycgovparks.org. NYC Parks. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  36. "Horace Harding Home to Be Sold". The New York Times. 12 September 1937. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
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