The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-11-04
ACCEPT The AWARDS
Capitol Commission Approves
Work of Appraisers.

The awards made by the commits
sioners appointed to condemn addi-
floral land between Central avenue,
Aurora avenue and Cedar street Tor
the new state state capitol approach
were accepted yesterday morning by
the capitol commission. The secretary
was instructed to issue warrants to the
persons entitled under the awards and
the properties will be taken over I'M
mediately by the commissioners. The
land, aggregating $4,000 feet, VIII cost
the state s78,444.
Although considered much too high
by some of the members, the commits
sioners accepted the awards with little
discussion.
I'VE feel that the awards are unus-
ually generous" said Claiming Sea-
bury, vice president of the board. but
We did not consider it quite proper for
the state to appeal from them. The
prices we are now paying for the land
are about the same as we offered ten
years ago. AS we could only pay IN
yearly installments then, the owners re-
fused to sell or held out for more than
We could give them. Since then the
property has deprecated greatly in
value"
The commissioners do not look for
any contests of the awards by the
property owners and expect to close up
the negotiations for the transfer of the
properties by Dec. 1.
Bids for the purchase of the build
ings on the property were ordered ad-
vertised for by the commission. Ac-
cording to the specification, they must
be removed by Dec. l, except in some
cases where the occupants will be Civ
en- more time to seek new homes. All
the buildings must be cleared away by
April /, the commission states, as they
expect to begin the work of improving
the capitol grounds. soon after that
date.
Architect Cass Gilbert reported by
letter to the board that he was finding
| it difficult to induce the large Eastern
firms to bid on the furnishings for the
capitol. He explained that the firms
| feared that the contract would be an
| other political affair."" such as they
had met with in bidding for work for
other states. However, he expects sew
eral of the firms to send in bids. The
bids for the carpeting, hangings and
furniture for the new building will be
opened at the next meeting of the COM
mission on Dec. l.
The architect also reported that the
placing of the ornamental marble in
the interior was progressing nicely. The
marble has been placed in the main
walls and around the grand stairways
UP to the vaulting of the first floor
ceiling line. A large amount of other
interior work was reported progressing
rapidly. ,-- ~
T. ]. Mcclure, of Minneapolis, filed
protest against the awarding of the
contract for the installing of two large
passenger elevators to the Otis Eleva-
tor company. The contract was award
ed after the commission had asked the
elevator company to give prices on
certain specifications which they sub
| mitted after all bids for the work had
been rejected. Mcclure stated that if
the board would make certain changes
in the specifications he could reduce
his bid several thousand dollars.
A protest against the substitution of
composition panels in some of the dec
orations instead of hand7carved wood
was received by the board from Edgar
Drummer. of Chicago, Secretary of the
International Wood Caryefs, associa-
ton. The board replied that the COM
position work had been substituted
with the consent of the architect.