The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1907-05-02
STATUARY HALL
IN THE CAPITOL
Undergoing Extensive Improvement
IN Accord With Original Plan.

OF the United States Capitol build
ing, even as to details, according
to the original plan, has begun in
earnest.
Visitors to the Capitol during
the past few weeks have been
greatly disappointed to find that
all the statues in Statury Hall have
been boxed, scaffolding erected
over the entire space, and an army
of expert workmen there and in
other parts Of the building making
it most unattractive to sightseers.
Statuary Hall was originally
intended to be left with a natural
san dstone finish, but a good many
years ago the architect Of the Cap
itol ordered il decorated in imita-
ton marble. Every vestige of the
paint now on the. walls, however,
will be sCraped off, and they will
be left as al first intended. More
than this, two of the old stairways
which run from Statuaay Hall
which until 1859 was the hall of
the House of Representatives-to
what was formerly the mems gal
lery and the women's gallery have
been re-discovered and opened, and
the mems gallery will also be re-
stored to its original plan.
Congress at its last session ap-
propriated the restoration of the
building" The reason this action
was taken was because the restor-
ing of the walls of the rotunda to
their natural sandstone finish last
year seems to have met with the
universal approval by both Houses
of Congress as we'll as by visitors
to the.Capitol. 1t is universally
the opinion that the rotunda in it's
natural sandstone finish is far more
beautiful and artistic than was the
case when the handsome rosetinted
sandstone was covered with a dozen
layers of cracking paint.
When the now Statuary Hall was
usedtas the House of Represen ia
tives TWAS conceded to be the most
beautiful Legislative hall in the
world. 1t was purely Grecian in its
decorations, the outline of the plan
being a semicircle of ninety-six
feet chord elongated in its vertical
diametrical line by a parallelogram
! seventy-twO feet long by twenty
five feet wide. The height to the
top of the entablature blocking is
thirty-fve feet, and to the apex of
the dome ceiling ffty-seven feet.
So far as can be determined by
sounding and testing, the entire
wall space is Of sandstone similar
to that used in the construction of
the rotunda. The circular colorado
is made up of fourteen columns and
two antes of the richest are COM
posed Of a remarkable beautiful
species of variegated marble called
Breccia, in solid blocks, obtained
from the banks of the Potomac
River, hundred miles or so above
Washington. This marble is of
very remarkable formation, and the
blocks being of a nature which
made it impossible to have them
turned on lathe, as is ordinarily
the case, were hand polished by
slave labor. The capitals of these
columns are ofwhite Italian marble
sculptured after a specimen taken
from the temple of Jupiter Stator
at Rome, the most admired speci-
men of capitals of this delicate and
beautiful order. The entablature
is after the proportions of that in
the same temple, ornamented with
dentils and medallions enriched
between and underneath with
leaves and roses. Over the colon
ade springs the magnifcently paint
ed paneled dome, whose friezes
are familiar to every schoolboy in
Washington.
The plans for restoring the build
ing include the removed of the paint
from all the pillars and crypt with
in it.
While the work of restoring the
Capitol building to its former nat
ure is a considerable undertaking,
extra men have been employed in
order that the scheme may be