3
PUBLIC SERVICE BUILDING
Newest Capitol Group Addition
New State Building Lives Up to Capitol Group History
April,, 15, 1950, was an o th er m em
orable day in th e hectic ^history of
th e capitol group of buildings. W ith
ap p ro p riate -ce^ ^ ^ ^ sW he new P u b
lic Service Q m fling w as officially
opened for b^ B n e ^ W illiam W arren,
U nited P ress staff correspondent, sums
up the capitol group history w ith these
com m ents in a Salem C apital Jo u rn a l
story:
“I t ’s a fine, b rav e building, this
new P ublic Service stru ctu re, from
penthouse flaggple to têçhnicolor cafe
teria in the basem ent.
“A nd it kep t; the hecti.b'pæratory in
tact.
in the p laster m ade a re p air
job necessary and held up official ac
ceptance of th e stru ctu re for a couple
of m onths. B ut capitol attaches point
out th a t th e cracks w ere not the fa u lt
Soûnd C o n s trffilfti C b ^ b u ild -
ers of th e five-story, $2,000,000' edi-
fice. The state itself? s p e c s ® pum ice
blocks for th e p artitio n s and tn e s ^
blocks continued to ‘cu re’ afte r the
p laster w as on, causing the cracks.
“O ldest building in th e , B a f f iì S oup
| | B j e suprem e court building, and it
launched the trad itio n of tu rb u le n t
tim es am ongst the state buildings in
a big w ay . The suprem e cdjjrt build-
ing w as b u ilt on th e in sta llm é ri^ p la n
by legislative fiat.
“In 1911 the legislature appropriated
$150,000 to buy p ro p er t l l S d build the
suprem e ^ p u r f ts j ^ ^ ^ ^ g i A n d i t ’.spec-
ified, as if shaking a collective firigef'
at th e
of p u rchasing or acquiring such land
hhd erection of a suitàble building
thereon, fo r the purpose m entioned
shall in ho case exceed the sum of
niohey above ap p ro p riated .’
“The p ro p e rty at S ta te and 12th
streets—n ex t to th e ra ilro a d tracks,
incidentally, w here th e freights ru m
ble pakt to postpone th e ponderings
of the high court m e n ^ ^ a s bought and
the building started.
“T hen funds for th e job w ere ex-
h a u s^ ^ w ai^w i the- building ab ru p tly
halted.
“W hen th e 1913 legislature convened
the law m akers prom ptly said “pooh”
to the 1911 legislative' injunction
against m ore dough and appropriated
an additional $136,000 to com plete the
stru ^ B re , p ro cu re some fu rn itu re and
l a n d s c S s th e grounds. The building
was .first ^ e u b r e c^^^M F e b ru a ry of
1914.
I “N ext olde a ^ t r - ^ ^ S e in th e group,
the state K $ e building across the al-
ley from the suprem e court building,
was com pleted in 1930, b u t only afte r
a^'se
'and bickering th ati
echoed clear to th e - Unitecl; S tates su
prem e court.
“L itigation started?'!: in 1927 and
reached the U. S. high court before it
was settled. It ^ a s to d eterm ine
w he
fIciaTs could borrow
th e m oney to build a state building
from a state d ep artm en t—in this case,
t h ^ t ru&tl funds of the S tate In d u stria l
A ccident Commission.
“This was a new d ep a rtu re in finan-r
cing the cost of construction of state
buildings, w ith a /plan of rep ay m en t
from rentals plus 4% p e r cent interest.
“£>uit W /sft.brought by th e E astern
& W estern L um ber Co. against the
state board of control in 1927, to en+