The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-11-23
Kansas Senate Chamber Is Be-
ing frightened Up.
Contract Let TO Topeka Decora-
tor for Work.
A FIVE WEEKS TASK.
New Color Scheme Is Being
Worked Out.
One of Handsomest Rooms in
United States.

NncH the members OF the Kansas
state senate assemble in Topeka this
winter. they will hardly recognize the
magnificent $4,000 chamber where
they have for the past twenty years
been holding their sessions.
By vote of the executive council, it
has been decided to have the walls of
the room frescoeds and the contract
has been let to W. w. Gillespie of To-
peka for $3.50.
Instead of the cold. white ceiling
and walls, rich in their borders. panels
and ornaments. the state architect
John F. Stanton. in connection with
Mr. Gillespie, is working out a new
color scheme" The walls will be
tinted a light cream. embossed with
gold leaf. and set off with trimmings
OF appropriate shades.
Already the big room has been filled
with scaffolding, and a crowd of men
are hammering and pounding away
TOR dear life to get things ready for
the painters. 1t is no small job to fill
a room full of ''tWO-by-sixeS'' in such
a way that painters can walk around
on top and paint the ceiling without
danger of smashing down through ? s
feet to the floor.
1t IS expected that it will take about
five weeks to complete the job.
The Kansas senate chamber is one
of the chief centers of interest at the
state house In this room was lavish
ed fortune in money: in its prepara-
ton there developed one of the num-
erous state house scandals" which
racked the peace of the Kansas tax
payers while the big building was in
course of erection There was
highly exciting legislative investiga-
ton; a report which severely con-
demned and censHred;" loud blast
from Sol Miller and other Kansas edi-
tors demanding that the state "a pitol
be moved away from Topeka, and
then, Ike other scandals OF similar
nature, the excitement died out. and
nothing special was done.
It was the purpose CT the state,
when this senate chamber was pro-
vided for in 1856, to make it the hand
soonest senate chamber in the United
States. The OLD senate chamber in the
east wing was very plainly finished,
with the expectation that it would be
entirely reconstructed. And the archi-
tects for the new work, Haskell &
house building commission, to get up
a senate chamber which would make
the rest of the country sit up and take
notice.
The estimated cost of the job was
SIS. 900. and the style of room decided
upon was French Renaissance.
The product of the skill of design
ers and architects was wonderful
com bination of marble. bronze plate,
mahogany and stucco. There is a
marble wainscoting around the room
about ten feet high. made of half a
dozen different kinds of marble, and
great slabs of onyx-most of which
are badly cracked. The wainscoting |
is set off with all sorts of little panels
and hillocks and depressions, pieces or
bronze plate and chunks of variegated !
marble. Then there are about 80
great pilasters made Of iron, covered !
over with bronze plate. The upper |
part of the walls and ceiling were one |
dizzy maze of gingerbread stucco
work, of the most elaborate and or
nate design known TO art. The en-
frances were Of massive Tennessee |
marble, and in the trimming of the |
room. not a stick of any kind of wood |
was used except mahogany. i
When the Job was completed, it was |
found that it would cost $141.00O in
stead of 1000, and that's where the
scandal broke out, and the investiga- /
ton commenced.
But the state had its senate cham
Der. and its proud boast was that it !
was the handsomest in the United /
States. Visitors to the state capitol /
are still assured, solemnly and impress /
sively. that this is the room that cost !
$15O,OOO. and is the handsomest SEN
ate chamber in the United States
Many people think this is true; but a
few are unkind enough to say that the /
room is too elaborate to be really ar
tistic.
However. in the course Of twenty |
years, the stucco walls of the room /
have become sadly soiled by dust and /
smoke. While the Populists were in
power they undertook to fix the thing
up some by having the stucco brushed |
with steel brushes, and that was pref /
ty near the finish of the stucco.
The present move is chiefly to cover |
up the dirt. and hide the scars made |
by the steel brushes. It is expected /
that the general appearance of the
chamber will be improved, and the |
alabaster iciness of the stucco warmed |
up a little.
MUST sIL0 THEIR BEETs.