European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 3, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A photo earliest known photo of Capitol in dates to United states Capitol Symbol and stage by Robert Andrews associated press they started building the United states Capitol nearly 192 years and there still tinkering with it is full of some valuable and some it has been bombed and gutted by chunks of Wall have fallen for All these the Capitol remains magnificently even As its West front undergoes a million Facelift behind construction cranes and the building is an architectural Triumph of cast Iron and but it has a deeper it is both Symbol and the embodiment of a nations spirit and the Arena where a Peoples sorrows and strivings Are played the Capitol has a terrific standing up there very looking As important As it really dominating the City from one of the greatest Sites in the says Don editor of architecture mag it is As slightly Eclectic but generally very successful neoclassical with just enough quirks to make it they threw away the Rule Book on but it architectural historian Frederick Nichols of the University of Virginia sees minor flaws the dome overhangs the portico a for example but says that on the its a great its very hard to talk about the Capitol purely Asar says Lois associate Dean of architecture and planning at Massachusetts Institute of the Capitol carries so much so Many Hopes and expectations that the Over has assumed a symbolism that is undeniable and she like other great Public buildings the White the houses of even the Kremlin it is an entanglement of events and its architecture the Capitol is a classical example of the palladian style of Central Structure crowned by a dome and flanked by that stems from ancient Greece and subsequent encouraged by Thomas gave the Capitol an american the simplicity of the Federal with a late 19th Century overlay of Victoria style the massive employing a cast Iron technology used for the first time in Isaacs Cathedral at borrows stylistic elements from Peters Basilica in the Pauls Cathedral in the Santa Maria Dei Fiori in the pantheon in Rome and the Church of the invalids in it took the Talent of not one but four most of them Strong willed and to build the Capitol Over 90 each altering the work of his predecessor to satisfy ego and artistic the winning design for the Congress House was submitted in 1793 by William Thornton of the Virgin he was a Young portrait inventor and self taught sixteen other sketches were dismissed As one loser featured an enormous weather cock perched atop a dome with wings Steamboat builder Robert Fulton statue represents Pennsylvania in statuary the described by Pierre Charles Lenfant As a Pedestal waiting for a was a Rocky plot near the brow of Jenkins where Powhatan indians once there Thornton built the North Wing of his using Sandstone from a Virginia Congress moved Down from Philadelphia for its first joint session in the columned Senate chamber on the modest building was immediately Over crowded it was shared by the 32member the 105man the supreme the Library of Congress and the District of Columbia the House moved out first in into a Brick building nicknamed the oven for its unbearable on the foundations of Thornton South the supreme courts quarters in the North Wing were so cold and draft that the justices frequently met a photo a Section of the 8foothigh frieze that circles the Wall of the Capitol across the Street in a Thornton successor was Benjamin Henry an engish born architect appointed by Thomas Jeffer who completed the House Wing in 1807 from Thornton design and poured his Genius into the Interi ors of the two then connected by a wooden after British troops set fire to the Capitol in August Latrobe rebuilt a most magnificent ruin while Congress met in a Brick building on the site of the present supreme court it was left to Thomas Walter of philae phia to build the twin extensions that House the present Senate and House Chambers and erect the 9 million Pound dome visible when the head of the Bronze statue of Freedom was bolted into place atop the dome at Capitol Hills Field Battery boomed a 35 gun one for each the guns of a dozen Union forts guarding the City during the civil War roared Back in Many of those who work there today both old timers and newcomers Are struck by the majesty of the theres a certain feeling you have no where else when you look up at the Capitol in the driving up new Jersey says Eileen who has worked in the House doorkeeper office for the past 10 theres such Beauty All around you the High the thick Arches and the herringbone pattern in the Brick flooring that slave labor probably she Ben superintendent of the House press Gal has worked the Capitol for 43 it holds the same Awe and majesty that i Felt my very first Day on the he i get that same feeling of excite ment every time i look up at the lighted dome when i leave work at the building has inspired different emotions in a few political or ideological who bombed it twice in recent the first blast occurred March during the unrest Over the Vietnam the device exploded in a restroom next to a Barber shop on the first floor of the Senate causing Worth of damage but no another explosion came on the second floor of the Capitol outside a conference room about 30 feet from the Senate no one was Hurt in the nighttime a group protesting the invasion of Gre Nada and the presence of marines in Lebanon took no arrests were made in either former Iowa Fred Schwengel is so enamoured of the Capitol that when he was Defeated in he remained in Washington As a founder and president of the Capitol historical among the Pur poses of the privately financed organization is to acquire and restore works of Art and important historical documents for the the Capitol is the most important building in the More has happened in the Shadow of the dome of this build ing to bring the biblical Promise of a More abundant life to the people and share it with the rest of the world than any other place on Schwengel the Story of the As told by its is a tale of mishaps and of the Sublime and the the plaster Model for the Freedom statue nearly Sank to the Bottom of the Atlantic during its voyage from Italy in the hold of a Leaky dark blotches on the Marble Steps of a ceremonial House staircase arc believed to be bloodstains from a Ken Tucky William Preston who was fatally shot by a reporter for the Louisville times in italian Fresco master Constantino who spent the last Quarte Century of his life beautifying the Capi Tol of his adopted nearly fell to his death in 1879 while painting the 8foothigh that circles the Wall of the the then never returned to the at the Eye of the 180 feet above the is Bru midis crowning a grand Fresco entitled apotheosis of Washington glorifying the first furiously brushing plaster before it completed the allegorical which Mea sures Square in just 11 far nearly forgotten behind some air Condi toning equipment in the Senate Are a pair of sunken fashioned from Carrara Marble with brass fittings and contoured they were imported from Italy and installed in the mid1800s for the pleasure of Many of whom lived in nearby hotels and boarding houses that lacked such More than 500 artworks crowd the from Bru midis hallway murals to busts of Lon forgotten vice from gilded clocks and immense canvases to a towering pair of ornamental Bronze doors propped up against a Wall intended for an Extension of the West front that May never be among the most prize works Are a Rembrandt scale portrait of the so called porthole por trait mounted High above the dais of the restored old Senate chamber four historical scenes by John Trum Bull that Are mounted in the landscapes by Albert Bierstadt and Western scenes by Seth the arrival of the most fantastic assortment of statues was signalled when Congress decided to do some thing about Latrobe original House which had turned into a shabby Haven for office seekers and paddlers of Root Beer and oranges after the House moved to its present location in Congress declared the chamber a statuary and invited each state to submit two statues of its most notable soon the weight of contributions raised fears that the Chambers floor might so the statues were dispersed throughout the today likenesses of Robert Ethan Abraham William Jennings Bryan and will Rogers Are alongside those of such lesser Nowns As Joseph Ware of South founder of Yankton and Shoup of a rotund gentleman with thumb tucked self importantly in his mar ble a Man identified Only As Click represents had they they could have had Eisen says one the Stern faced likenesses of suffrage leaders Eliza Beth Cady Susan Anthony and Lucretia Mott Rise Waist High from an unfinished Block of mar prompting the nickname three ladies in a Bath they reside in the the ground floor chamber under the Rotunda that was reserved for a Napoleon style Tomb for who was buried instead at his mount Vernon three nonwhites Are among the worthies represented in Marble or Bronze two Chippewa Indian warriors and polynesian King Kamehameha who United the hawaiian the first statue of a Black civil rights Leader Martin Luther King is to be installed in the Capitol next nearly two centuries after George Washington Laid the Cornerstone for Thornton original North the task of completing the Capitol artist Cliff Young is finishing Allyn Coxs murals in the last unadorned House and after years of congressional workmen have begun restoring the crumbling West a painstaking project scheduled for completion in Only portions of the old exterior will remain the Sandstone Walls of the East front now stand inside the 32foot Marble Extension of that Side completed in Congress vetoed a similar Extension of the West during work on the East front authorities searched for the Cornerstone Laid on by who wore a masonic Sash and apron and wielded a Silver trowel for the the Cornerstone was never Page 14 the stars 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