The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-09-12
THE sTATB-BoUsE AND IT'S DOME,

Alphabetically indianapolis should be at
rest The capital city at last has dome. 1t
Aas stseples enough, piercing the sky, but
these belong to the churches Our State
dressed man needs derby or silk hat
There will be no bell in it, no astronomical
observatory; it will not be even utilized as a
shot tower or a smokestack. Like the dome
of the Capitol at Washington, it will shut
down, as all State-house domes do, over the
observer like an inverted iron pot. Our citi
zens will open the door or step from the
spacious corridors and find themselves in
spacious circular pen of marble, stone and
iron, without vista or outlook, without rela-
ton or interior proportion State-house
domes are made FOR the outside and not for
the inside.
Herein they differ from church domes.
Take st. Paurs, for example, after which the
Washington dome was modelled. Here the
dome, the grandest in the world, is the culmi
nation of the whole interior of the building,
rising over the central area, gathering power
and majesty from nave and transept, choir
and aisle, and rejecting on them from it's lofty
armament expression which extends to every
nook of the interior. The building is in fact
a unit without and within, and the grand
dome is the head and vitalizing center of the
organism.
Few are the ceremonies or occasions which
rise to the Importance Of not being dwarfed in
st. Paups, though eighteen thousand peo
pie have assembled within it's walls,
and annually twelve thousand charity
children break the vastness of its solitude.
But, of course, in dome like that of our
State-house, and in building costing less
than two millions of dollars, we do not look
for the grand and sublime in architecture.
Wren understood construction and effect, and
therefore the Royal Commissioners found his
plans Every artificial, proper and useful" as
they stated in the warrant approving his de-
sign. Edwin May knew quite as we'll as Wren
that the CONSTITUTIONAL anatomy of building
must sometimes be purchased at the expense
of its beauty, and he has, in the recognition
and bold solution of the difficulties that beset
the problem, showed the quality of great
architectural mind.
He did wisely to add the dome The out
side demands it, and the interior does not
suffer because of it. 1t is already though far
from completion, the most conspicuous OBJ
ject in the city, and is arousng more interest
in the building than has been shown for years.
The dome relieves the squat appearance of the
building, which is due mainly to the debris of
construction sheds and framework about its
base. Its third floor really stands on a level
with the average buildings of the city. The
finest view by all odds is from East Market
street in the vicinity of Tomlinson Hall and
the courthouse.
An avenue should be cut through the trees
of Circle Park, so as to show its east facade,
the statue of Morton, and, in fact, what is
destined to be one of the finest streets in the
city. We have a State-house with dome,
and the city demands an unobstructed view
of it.
Like the court at Chicago, it is not
falling to pieces. There is not a broken stone
in it. 1t is the best lighted building of its
size in America. Though not costing fifteen
millions, like the State house at Albany, the
State of Indiana bids fair to receive value for
every dollar voted for it's erection, even includ-
ing the dome, its principal exterior ornament
and feature.