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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (June 10, 1956)
32-Sec. Ill) Statesman, Salem, Ore., Sun., June 10, '58 Mail and phone orders t.jiC U.S. Capital TT 1 ' "" N ' ' i . m m m J bt j.m mM J i i sw m i i y r m m J x ' m at ii -. ii i i sr an t - as aw ast as ass ar wj mnra an t w m m m t u m a a? f -1 11 -poip"1 --wi I nffprcrnincf n Face-Lifting- (tiUf't Note: Architects' pn , muIi to lis mp the UA Cajltl nave bee. etirriiig tiatmmj ever liar th. CWS War. Bat, 4rtpU thi kae as. cry trm erUles. II lefts Ilk th. Urn 14 strwlore k to far rnajar face Mtlag aperitUa at last. Hen's what lea. to K.) . By ROGER D. GREENE AP Newtfe stores Writer WASHINGTON UV-Unlika Un ion Bride, and contrary to warning once Issued by former ' President Trumaa th. truieo State Capitol to not tailing down A loni disputed face lifting noeritioa is now in the worts, how .ever, amid outraged cries from critic . ' Blasted by fir. art by British troop in 1114 and rocked by a gas explosion in 1891, th. 163-year-old original structure today fa chipping away in chunks. Some newly fanea uatw weip as mucn as two or three pounds. : Aaaeara T. B. Fleatlng ' Moreover, experts say th his toric shrine is out of whack, arcni , tecturally speaking, and part of the great whitefaJnted dome appears to be floating in mid-air. ' One sid. of tbe famous super structure actually does project into space without direct support from the ground. - - The "skirt" of the 4.4SS-ton cast iron dome Juts out IS feet inches beyond tbe front wall of the cen tral portion, between the Senate and House wings, ana overnangs th. east (front) portico where thousands of sightseers enter the , halli of Congress daily. Hidden beneath the skirt b an ingenious system of iron brackets and cantilevers, but nevertheless, as ex r President Truman com plained, the illusion remains that the huge melon-shaped landmark Isn't to. steady on its pins and might do a humpty-dumpty. "The dome," Trumaa wrote, "Is bout a loot or two out of plumb and one of these days it will prob ably com. crashing down, which will be a pity." Officials scoff, at such a -possibility, but just to be on the safe side, engineers examine the dome twice a year for any danser sig nals. . - Meanwhile. Capitol custodians are frankly dismayed at the seedy appearance which has overtaken the weatherbeaten f eeade. Hunks of paint nearly an Inch thick, often accompanied by slabs of rotted sandstone, sr. peeling oft and fatt ing to the ground with increasing frequency. 1 , . Since 186 about 98 coats of paint - have been applied to brighten the central structure's grey atone In harmony with the marble of the Stat, and Hens, wings. The .t original building was constructed Acquis tree sanasione irom i quarry owned by George Washing ton. Some experts say tin una atone front is disintegrating. The dome itself is now being craped and painted. Job carried out every four years to make ready for th. next Inauguration. It takes 1. 000 gallons of off white paint and this year costs H4.B2. Authorities say the old building was badly shaken by an explosion of the basement gas plant an in novation marking the end of the Capitol's candlelight era on Nov. Is. ins. The blast wrecked and burned the old Supreme ' Court chamber and Jarred the Capitol to Ms foundations. w , .... Partly to remedy old flaws and to provide more elbow room for the nation's crowded lawmakers a three-man commission of archi tect has begun work on recom mendations for a multi million dollar project to rip out the crum bling front waD and extend the portico perhaps SS feet eastward. The original walls are as much as 7 feet I inches thick in some places.-'-" ' Congress finally authorized the extension protect last year, cli maxing controversy dating back to Civil War days. It earmarked 5 million dollars to get It started. Among other things, tentative plans call for construction of an underground hydrogen bomb shel terknown officially as "secur ity vault"-plus a two-level sub terranean garage, a new congres sional restaurant, and additional lAriM and ftfir uiar Three-Year Project Tbe commission expects to sub mit its recommendations before Congress adjourns this summer. The project may take around three years to complete. Bitter disputes about revamping the face of the Capitol have erupted ' Intermittently ever since Thomas V. Walter, who served as Capitol architect during the Civil War, wrote in his lttl report to Con res: "The eastern portico of the old building wiQ certainly be taken down at no very distant day, and the front be extended eastward. It was Walter, incidentally, who . supervised construction of the ' great Iron dome replacing the small wooden dome which capped ;.the original structure early in the 1Mb century. The iron dome, 13S feet in diameter at Its base, was completed In 1863. ' latate Frees Forts The Capitol, begun in 1793, was finished in 1827. The 7V4-ton statue of freedom crowning the dome was raised in 1SS3 with a 455-gun salute from tbe ring of forts surrounding the war-beleaguered City of Wasn- sncle. Although Capitol architects since Walter's time have agreed that the big dome, bulging like an oversize derby, needs a bigger bead and shoulders t. go witn ue nst, not all critics agree. Anud all the controversy, the Capitol wags It head literally to sphinx-like silence. 1 Few of the J million annual visitors resliz. X. but the rait eVeae actually turns like a sun flower as the best of the sun - oads the cast iron on one aid. It twists between three and four lodkts between dawn and dusk, CM retanst at light to its original OPEN MONDAY AND FRIDAY OTHW DAYS 130 AM. TO 5:30 Ml FREE STORE-SIDE PARKING ; rUK WCK l,VUU WMU - - Sy j. rj n , 1 j j r r 1 t ) 1 u 1 f) $.v5Ro;$erverT.bl. 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