Morning journal and courier., 1883-07-06
RECOMMENDATIONS.
Down With the oId State House

| Down With the Old State House. To the Editor of the JOURNAL COURIER: Our old State House has had sad history and we shall have no comfort till it is out oi the way. At it's erection, which well re- member, some fifty-five or six years ago, its fine proportions and Grecian architecture made very favorable impression. Ever then, however, no one could help seeing that it injured the appearance of the upper Green. As time passed the radical defects of the building became more and more apparent The Hall of Representatives was found to be failure in it's acoustic properties and the public business was always conducted there under the difficulties of imperfect hearing. After while apprehension began to be felt in regard to the safety of the building and committees of inquiry were time and again appointed. For some years the town meet ings were held in the basement, but the cell ing was so low and the room so damp that it could no longer be used. It was no longer safe for the city records and the town clerks office to be there, and so they too were driv- en out, and to-day the basement Is little bet ter than cellar and a mud hole Up stairs the courts were held, but they too disap- peared. The Young Mems Institute with the library, which held occupancy for awhile, re- treated in despair, and now all that remains is the collection of the Historical society, which, driven out from the City Hall, has thAOA Ic1uk6 HI GA0 huQ a klQQ or museum.
 In it's construction the building had noth- ing to recommend it except it's architecture It was in general sham. The marble of which its steps and the facings of the base ment are composed has proved to be little better than the cheapest limestone. Money wonId be thrown away in trying to repair them. The material is wholly unsuited to this climate and crumbles away like chalk The rest of the building is covered with plas- ter (once digpifed with the name of stueco) which was fashioned fifty years ago, but has now wholly passed away as unworthy of a public building. We may patch it ap, or even wholly renew it, but still it will only be cheap imitation of stone, of which in the improvements of our architectural taste we shall more and more be ashamed in connec- ton with public building.
 In it's present condition the old State House is an eyesore and nuisance. The attempt to repair it would only perpetuate the nui- sance Undoubtedly parties are ready for ten, twenty, thirty thousand dollars to patch up the poor old building, but what would it be after all this repairing but lath and plaster memento. of the poverty or ill-tRste, or both, of 8 former generation and of 8 capital no longer ours? And who does not know (as instance the State Houses at Alba nv and Hartford) that these syren estimates of the cost of erecting or repairing public buildings are the clever tricks by which the credulous public is beguiled into immense expenditures which they never dreamed of ? Let us beware in time and cry one and all. Down with the old State House
 QUnNnIAc Senator PIatt Commended-A Good sux-
 gestfon.
 Tothe Editor of the JOURNAL. AsD COURIER:
 The New York Times of this date has an editorial bestowing well-merited eommenda-