Commems Collection Classic: What If? Phantom 1948 Wright Brothers Memorial

In 1948, the Wright Memorial Committee was seeking ways to raise funds to purchase and preserve the Orville Wright home/mansion in Oakwood, Ohio and turn it into a Wright Brothers Memorial and Museum.

Note: Both Orville and Wilbur Wright intended to live in the house, referred to as Hawthorn Hill, along with their sister Katherine and father Bishop Milton Wright. Unfortunately, Wilbur died of Typhoid Fever on May 30, 1912, just before construction on the house began; Wilbur was 45 at the time of his death. Orville lived in the house until his death on January 30, 1948; he was 76. Katherine moved out of the house in 1924, after she married. Bishop Milton Wright lived in the house until he died in April 1917.

Wilbur and Orville Wright - Circa 1909

(Image Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Public Domain.)

Orville Wright House - Hawthorn Hill

(Image Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Public Domain.)

Local attorney and former United States ("US") Representative Roy Gerald Fitzgerald (R-OH; 1921-1931) suggested to then-current US Representative Raymond Hugh Burke (R-OH) that a bill for a commemorative half dollar be introduced in the House of Representatives ("House") to help raise the needed funds.

Planning ahead, Fitzgerald suggested that the obverse of the half dollar present portraits of Wilbur and Orville Wright, and that the reverse depict the plane of their first flight.

Burke moved forward on the Museum idea, but not the coin. He introduced a bill on February 17, 1948 (just weeks after Orville's death). The bill sought to "establish a national memorial museum to Wilbur and Orville Wright, at Oakwood, Dayton, Ohio." It designated the Secretary of the Interior to be responsible for the care and maintenance of the Museum, and authorized future appropriations to address ongoing care and maintenance expenses. The bill, however, made no reference to the minting of a commemorative coin.

Upon its introduction, the Burke bill was referred to the House Committee on House Administration.

The bill did not progress past its Committee referral, and so Hawthorn Hill did not become a National Museum, and no Wright Brothers half dollar was struck. Hawthorn Hill was purchased by National Cash Register Company ("NCR") of Dayton, OH for use as a corporate guest house (vs. a museum). NCR donated Hawthorn Hill to the Wright Family Foundation in August 2006. The house is currently managed by Dayton History, which offers scheduled tours a couple of days each week.

In 2003, the Wright Brothers First Flight Centennial commemorative coin program included a Silver Dollar that follows Fitzgerald's design suggestion:

2003 Wright Brothers First Flight Centennial Silver Dollar



For other of my posts about commemorative coins and medals, including other What If? stories, see: Commems Collection