Straddling the intersection of 23rd and Lincoln Boulevard is a large, limestone and granite building. The floors are marble, as are the stairs and wall bases.
It was built by convicts. And, when completed in 1917, cost the staggering sum of $1.5 million — roughly 25 cents a square foot.
It’s the Oklahoma State Capitol building.
Remember running through those marble halls squealing as a little kid in Mrs. Anderson’s second grade class? And don’t forget that oil field surrounding it. Yes, at one time that little field generated more than $1 million in revenue for the state.
But I bet you didn’t know the architecture is classic Greco-Roman, designed by Solomon Layton and Wernyss Smith.
Yeah, you probably scurried up and down those Vermont marble staircases, too.
But did you realize you were standing in a building that takes up more than 11 acres of floor space and has some 650 rooms?
Didn’t think so.
You see, just like the rustlers and cowpokes who founded this state, our Capitol building has a unique history all to itself.
Heck it almost didn’t get built in Oklahoma City.
There was the ill-fated fight with the town of Guthrie and the intense struggle that followed which brought the Capitol to Oklahoma City.
Then, instead of picking out a single plot of land and constructing a building, Oklahoma did things differently.
Instead of locating our seat of government at Capitol Hill — which of course, was being pushed aggressively by Capitol Hill folks — they decided on a plot in the middle of a field.
A plot straddling land owned by the William F. Harn family and the Frank I. Warren family. Instead of choosing one family over the other (and causing a ruckus of untold proportions) they decided to split the different and put the building on both plots of land.
If only the United Nations had the same diplomatic skill.
Groundbreaking was held July 20, 1914, and the state took possession of the building June 30, 1917. Granite steps were added in 1921 and various other office builds followed during the next few decades.
Eighty or so years later, we added a dome.
There is a great deal of history of those granite steps. The common-folk talk of “Alfalfa” Bill Murray. The heated debate over legislation. And the shuffle of the millions of tiny feet belonging to the school kids who traipse thought yearly to see their government at work.
And now, a movement is building to invest more than $100 million in the Capitol building and refurbish it.
It’s about time.
Long suffering under intense daily use and several misguided attempts to improve what Layton designed, our Capitol needs a face lift. A major face lift.
Like our state, our Capitol building is wrapped in history. It still functions as a work place for all 149 members of the Oklahoma Legislature, the governor, state treasurer, attorney general, their staffs and various other officials.
It’s still the scene of political infighting, and well-thought ideas. It’s seen the angry protest and the late-afternoon press conference. On it’s south steps many a political career has been launched — and crashed.
In short, it’s quite a place.
And it needs our help, now.
It was built by convicts. And, when completed in 1917, cost the staggering sum of $1.5 million — roughly 25 cents a square foot.
It’s the Oklahoma State Capitol building.
Remember running through those marble halls squealing as a little kid in Mrs. Anderson’s second grade class? And don’t forget that oil field surrounding it. Yes, at one time that little field generated more than $1 million in revenue for the state.
But I bet you didn’t know the architecture is classic Greco-Roman, designed by Solomon Layton and Wernyss Smith.
Yeah, you probably scurried up and down those Vermont marble staircases, too.
But did you realize you were standing in a building that takes up more than 11 acres of floor space and has some 650 rooms?
Didn’t think so.
You see, just like the rustlers and cowpokes who founded this state, our Capitol building has a unique history all to itself.
Heck it almost didn’t get built in Oklahoma City.
There was the ill-fated fight with the town of Guthrie and the intense struggle that followed which brought the Capitol to Oklahoma City.
Then, instead of picking out a single plot of land and constructing a building, Oklahoma did things differently.
Instead of locating our seat of government at Capitol Hill — which of course, was being pushed aggressively by Capitol Hill folks — they decided on a plot in the middle of a field.
A plot straddling land owned by the William F. Harn family and the Frank I. Warren family. Instead of choosing one family over the other (and causing a ruckus of untold proportions) they decided to split the different and put the building on both plots of land.
If only the United Nations had the same diplomatic skill.
Groundbreaking was held July 20, 1914, and the state took possession of the building June 30, 1917. Granite steps were added in 1921 and various other office builds followed during the next few decades.
Eighty or so years later, we added a dome.
There is a great deal of history of those granite steps. The common-folk talk of “Alfalfa” Bill Murray. The heated debate over legislation. And the shuffle of the millions of tiny feet belonging to the school kids who traipse thought yearly to see their government at work.
And now, a movement is building to invest more than $100 million in the Capitol building and refurbish it.
It’s about time.
Long suffering under intense daily use and several misguided attempts to improve what Layton designed, our Capitol needs a face lift. A major face lift.
Like our state, our Capitol building is wrapped in history. It still functions as a work place for all 149 members of the Oklahoma Legislature, the governor, state treasurer, attorney general, their staffs and various other officials.
It’s still the scene of political infighting, and well-thought ideas. It’s seen the angry protest and the late-afternoon press conference. On it’s south steps many a political career has been launched — and crashed.
In short, it’s quite a place.
And it needs our help, now.
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