page_title: Nebraska Capitol Commission
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Nebraska Capitol Commission / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Governor Samuel McKelvie Breaking ground for the Nebraska State Capitol, April 15, 1922
context_page_description: The Nebraska Capitol Commission is the State of Nebraska's official custodian of the Nebraska State Capitol. The seven-member commission and its corresponding executive agency, the Office of the Nebraska Capitol Commission, serve to assure “the highest quality preservation, restoration, and enhancement of and long-term planning for the State Capitol and capitol grounds for the perpetual use by state government and the enjoyment of all persons.”
context_section_description: On January 9, 1919, Governor Samuel McKelvie delivered his inaugural address before a joint session of the Nebraska Legislature from the rostrum of Representative Hall. Along the south wall of the hall, a dozen telephone poles with cross bracing attempted to stabilize the chamber. The roof trusses were inches from slipping off the supporting walls as the weak foundation caused the chamber to sink. McKelvie admonished:
  The building of a new capitol is a matter that cannot be much longer deferred. Not only is the present capitol a discredit to the state, but it is inadequate to house the State Government and is actually unsafe for occupancy. . . . I believe it is time to approach this question in a courageous and businesslike manner, provide the ways and means for beginning the construction of a new capitol at the earliest convenient moment.
  Previous governors had issued similar calls to no avail. McKelvie knew, however, that Nebraska, the United States, and the world were in a new era much different than that of his predecessors. With the signing of the final World War I armistice but two months before, civilization could now stabilize, rebuild, and remember. McKelvie concluded his plea for a new capitol:
  If this project were undertaken now, the capitol could be dedicated to the memory of the gallant soldiers and sailors who enlisted their service during this war.
  Three days after the inaugural ceremony, the Nebraska legislature introduced not one but two capitol bills. Representative George E. Tracewell of Valentine introduced House Roll 2, and Representative Grant S. Mears of Wayne introduced House Roll 3. (Only the moral urgency to ratify the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prevented a capitol bill from being designated “House Roll 1.”) Both bills called for the creation of a five-member Capitol Commission to oversee construction of a new capitol, and both bills established a construction levy of one mill on each dollar’s valuation of property. Governor McKelvie favored the Mears bill——House Roll 3——the bill he personally drafted with assistance from a Lincoln attorney. Tracewell, unaware of the governor’s plan prior to introduction, agreed to abandon his measure and support the Mears bill. In that way, the Nebraska State Journal joked, Tracewell and Mears could “encourage the building of one capitol instead of two.”
  On January 30, representatives passed House Roll 3 after the third and final reading (93 to 2), and the Senate, though it threatened to amend, subsequently passed House Roll 3 with no changes on February 17 (27 to 2). Three days later McKelvie not only signed the bill with its emergency clause but appointed the new Capitol Commission. William E. Hardy, president of Hardy Furniture Company, and Walter W. Head, vice president of the Omaha National Bank, were Republicans from Lincoln and Omaha respectively. William H. Thompson, a prominent lawyer, was a Democrat from Grand Island. The three citizen members joined the ex officio members, Governor McKelvie and State Engineer George E. Johnson, to become the Nebraska Capitol Commission.
  The Nebraska Capitol Commission organized on May 9, 1919, and shortly thereafter, hired Omaha architect Thomas Rogers Kimball to serve as Professional Advisor. Kimball, president of the American Institute of Architects, believed a competition program would be the best means of selecting a capitol architect—an architect who would be unfettered by any predetermined plan, scope, or style. He organized the competition, received entries, and by late evening, June 26, 1920, a New Yorker named Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue was named architect for Nebraska’s new statehouse.
  After the commission allowed a special property tax for construction to accrue, McKelvie ceremoniously broke ground on Goodhue’s skyscraper capitol on April 15, 1922. Ten years later, the superstructure was completed, yet the commission continued to oversee decorative finishes, furnishing, and landscaping through 1934. The commission issued its final report to the legislature in January 1935 and marginally o
caption: Governor Samuel McKelvie breaks ground for the new Nebraska State Capitol, April 15, 1922.
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