Every day, the story goes, William McKinley waved his handkerchief from this spot, now marked by the William McKinley Monument, also called the McKinley Memorial, west of the Ohio Statehouse entrance. It stands on Capitol Square to the west of the main entrance of the Ohio Statehouse in Downtown Columbus, Ohio. The figures you see were sculpted by Hermon Atkins MacNeil and Carol Brooks MacNeil from 1903 to 1906 and the work was dedicated on September 6, 1906.
Before you picture the man it honors: McKinley had served two consecutive two-year terms as Governor of Ohio from 1892 to 1896, and then won the 1896 presidential election to become the 25th president of the United States. He was assassinated less than a year after being re-elected for a second term in 1900. This particular monument was placed at the very spot where McKinley is said to have gone every day to wave his handkerchief to his bedridden wife, Ida McKinley, who watched from the Neil House hotel on the other side of High Street.
Locals recognized that wave, began to wait outside the hotel, and the daily routine became a popular attraction. Notice the Statehouse entrance beside you, and imagine Ida McKinley watching from the Neil House across High Street.