There was a time in this town when Second Street was today’s Koke Mill Road, at the western edge of the city. Back then the Industrial Age,
nurtured for decades on the east coast, was sweeping west like wildfire, riding
steel rails and embracing Illinois’ new capital city, the third town to hold the honor.
Springfield was the lucky benefactor not only of the age, but of the man who
helped shape the city’s promising destiny: Abraham Lincoln. As part of a merry band of Illinois
legislators known as the “Long Nine,” he successfully engineered the relocation of the capital from Vandalia to
Springfield to the domed building on the square which was soon outgrown by
bureaucracy in bloom. Its incapacity led to the 1868 groundbreaking for the
awesome assemblage of stone and steel that serves today as the Illinois
Statehouse.
Springfield authors Jim Donelan and Steve Dyer have teamed with Arcadia
Publishing to produce an informative pictoral book about the building which
took 20 years to complete. The timing of the book’s June 8 release, with a former state senator moved on to world prominence as
chief resident of The White House, could not have been better.
It’s hard to imagine driving west on Capitol Avenue and looking through tall timber
to gaze upon the Mather family mansion which once occupied what became the
Capitol Complex. The March 1865 photo of the house presented on page 9 reveals
a home equal in grandeur to the contemporary Maisenbacher home over on Seventh,
but the Mather mansion was destined to be razed to make way for the Lincoln
tomb following the Great Emancipator’s assassination. When the tomb was built at Oak Ridge cemetery north of the city
at the insistence of the widowed Mary Todd Lincoln, the site was selected for
the new Capitol Building.
The book’s eight chapters present chronological views of construction, the new building
from the ground to the top of the dome, including many of the Governor’s Offices through the years, the exterior of the building and grounds and views
from Capitol Avenue.
Construction photos reveal 19th century life rarely encountered in other
publications. Railroad tracks were used to bring building materials to the
site. The clutter of piled stone, mounds of earth and detritus of progress
dominated the scene for years. Private homes remained on the grounds close-by
during construction, and life went on.
Perhaps inspired by the stretches of steps leading to the main entrance of the
U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., an expansive stone staircase
originally led to an entrance to the Statehouse at the second floor. The
arrangement did not last long. It was removed by the end of 1885.
During the early years the Statehouse was home to the Illinois State Museum and
the Illinois Supreme Court. Included in the bounty of photos are glimpses of
those enterprises and never-before-published images of the 1932 major dome
restoration, Tents of the Illinois National Guard called in to deal with the
infamous race riots of 1908 add a sobering perspective on the history of the
city as well. Extensive restorations of the interior as recently as 2006 bring
the story up to date.
The Illinois Statehouse brings to everyone the tightly focused history of a single significant
building. Concisely written by authors who know the turf, it is the story of
one finger on a hand. Given the evolution of the adjacent facilities, all
coming to surround it like a boat built around an anchor, the book will likely
inspire as many questions about the rest of the buildings in the capitol
complex as it answers about the main ingredient. In the meantime, the book is a
foundation, a touchstone sure to inspire more research and publications. It is
well produced, well written and a delight to read.
Job Conger is a freelance writer/photographer and poet/songwriter. He is the
author of three books of his poetry, a biography of Vachel Lindsay, self
published, and Springfield Aviation from Arcadia Publishing.
This article appears in Jun 4-10, 2009.
