Despite the state’s budget crisis, an optimistic Gov. Bill Ritter recently signed two bills to jump-start repairs on the Colorado capitol dome, a symbol of the Mile-High State since 1908. Approximately $4 million start-up costs will come from the Colorado State Historical Fund, which is subsidized by gaming revenue from Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek. The CHF subsequently canceled this October’s grant competition and limited next year’s requests to a single round in April 2011. The Legislative Capital Development Committee has begun a campaign to raise the balance of the $11.5 million needed for repairs.
The general public became aware of a problem back in 2007, when guards found a 10-pound piece of cast iron, which apparently fell from the dome. Although officials assure visitors the building is safe, no one is allowed on the walkway where the foot long chunk of metal was found. Although the cast iron dome itself is in good shape, the drum and iron columns on the structure have sustained a great deal of weather damage over the past century, and the wood around the windows is rotting and leaking.
The Colorado state capitol as she currently stands.
Hopefully, the path to preservation will go more smoothly than original construction of the capitol building, which was fraught with controversy, indecision, politics (no surprise) and downright stubbornness. In fact, Colorado’s legislative headquarters might easily have been located in Colorado City (west Colorado Springs), the original Territorial capital, or Golden, which was the official capital until Dec. 9, 1867. The switch came about because of the railroads.
After the Civil War, both Golden and Denver vied for the position of future rail hub of the Rockies. Their plans were subsequently thwarted by the Union Pacific’s decision to build the transcontinental railroad through Cheyenne instead. Led by former Gov. John Evans, Denverites formed the Denver Pacific Railway and Telegraph Co. on Nov. 19, 1867, to build a rail link to Cheyenne. Meanwhile, construction on another route to Cheyenne, the Golden-based Colorado Central and Pacific Railway, had been stalled for two years due to company reorganizations and lack of financing. With the Denver railroad looking like a better bet, Coloradans moved the capital to Denver. Once the Kansas Pacific chugged into Denver in 1870, the city’s future would be assured.
Gov. Alexander Cameron Hunt immediately appointed a fundraising committee to find a generous party who would donate 10 parcels of land for the capitol building site. The offer came from Henry Cordes Brown, a carpenter and Denver Pacific Railway booster who had re-located from St. Louis in 1860. An entrepreneur with an eye on the future, he had filed a claim on 160 acres east of the city called “Brown’s Bluff” – one of the smartest real estate deals ever made. The proposed Colorado capitol building would occupy a section of that land on a gently sloping hill east of the city, with an imposing view of both Denver and the mountains. Of course, the city wasn’t much to look at in those days, and without obstacles, the mountain view was a given. Brown sat back and waited for the proposed capitol building to pop out of the ground, expecting the value of the surrounding land – which he also owned – to skyrocket. As it turned out, he had a long wait.
The Colorado state capitol after a snowfall, circa 1910.
Still in its infancy, Colorado Territory had no money for a new statehouse, and opponents argued that Denver might not remain the capital once statehood was achieved. The project stalled. When Colorado joined the Union on Aug. 1, 1876, the new Constitution required a general election in 1881 to choose the capitol city. Understandably annoyed, in 1879 Brown took back his land and fenced it in. When Coloradans did choose Denver as the capital by an overwhelming majority, a hassle over Brown’s reclaimed land ensued. The Supreme Court finally settled the matter in 1886, and the new capitol building project was off and running – sort of.
The first real effort to erect a building began earlier, in 1883, when Gov. James B. Grant appointed a Board of Capitol Managers, who were allotted $150,000 to start the process. A Notice to Architects (request for proposals) published on March 1, 1883, required that plans be submitted by May 9, an unreasonably short length of time for a major project. Nine sets of plans would be received and all of them discarded. Plans were put on hold until April 1, 1885, when the Fifth General Assembly passed a law mandating completion of the capitol by Jan. 1, 1890, with a $200,000 limit on funds spent each year during construction. This time, architects had three months to come up with a plan, with $1,500 awarded to the winner. Colorado materials must be used provided they were inexpensive and good quality, like the Beulah red marble and Colorado Yule Marble that now grace the capitol’s interior. Naturally, construction would begin only after settlement of the dispute with Brown.
The competition winner, Elijah E. Meyers of Detroit, submitted what he called a “Corinthian” plan that strongly resembled the U.S. capitol and the capitol buildings he created for Texas and Michigan. For financial reasons, the following year the Board dismissed a stunned Meyers as chief architect. As board member Otto Mears bluntly stated, “We have his plans and we paid for them. We don’t need him.” As it turned out, the contractor would also be replaced mid-contract after submitting a claim that soared $45,000 over budget. He would be replaced by Geddis and Seerie, a Denver firm, who agreed to complete the project for $700,000.
After nearly a quarter of a century of haggling, proud Coloradans finally laid the cornerstone for the Colorado capitol on July 1, 1890. The first occupants, including Gov. Davis Waite, moved in during November 1894, while the building was still under construction and full of dust, a situation that continued for some time. By then, the position of building superintendent changed hands twice, until Frank E. Edbooke, architect of the Brown Palace Hotel, took charge. Completing it according to Myers’ original design, Edbrooke, who had taken second place in the competition, liked to do things in grand style. He proposed that the capitol dome be gilded with real 24-carat gold plate rather than the traditional copper. Since Colorado had barely recovered from the Depression of 1893, the suggestion met with a mixed response, but boosters prevailed. Colorado mining kings donated the gold leaf for the dome, which would be re-gilded in 1949, 1980 and 1991. Only 10 other states have capitol domes covered with gold leaf: Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.
By 1908, the dust had settled – literally, and the dome had been completed. Meyers’ original plan called for an attractive female figure on top to represent Colorado, but after interviewing several potential candidates in a wide range of costumes, legislators could not agree. With female friends in the running and wives watching, the politicos wisely went with a red electric light bulb.
