The headline: "Cornerstone of Capitol is laid," April 4, 1914.
Eighteen years after Utah became a state, its government still had no home.
The Legislature had met in several locations, including the Council House, Social Hall and the Salt Lake City-County Building. But with the Capitol building under construction, that body and other evolving agencies overseeing state government would have a permanent address in the capital city, which was rapidly spreading below in the valley.
It was a festive day. The Utah State Agricultural College band played "The Star Spangled Banner," and then the crowd - several thousand Utahns from all over the state - watched in "breathless silence" as a "powerful derrick" swung the circular cornerstone slowly into position, the newspaper reported.
The observers burst into applause that lasted for several minutes as the stone settled comfortably into place. A copper box containing artifacts pertinent to Utah and its settlement was entombed under the stone.
The building would "forever stand as a monument to the state," said Utah's third governor, William Spry, as he used a silver mortar to cement the base stone. LDS Church President Joseph F. Smith, also seated with dignitaries on the bunting-draped stand, echoed the sentiment in a statement that the building "shall stand until God shall shake the earth and the mountains fall to the ground."
The Rev. Elmer I. Goshen prayed that "nothing would ever take place within the walls of the Capitol that would injure any resident of the state of Utah." Ironically, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which was to become one of the state's cultural gems, could not make it to the program. A poem extolling Utah's virtues filled the choir's place on the program.
The ceremonies over, participants danced in the rotunda until 10:30 p.m.
That the Capitol building was now under construction could be attributed largely to the death of E.H. Harriman, a railroad magnate who had a bit of the pioneering spirit himself.
Harriman took 60,000 miles of decrepit Union Pacific Railroad line, described as "a streak of rust," and built it into a huge success that left him worth an estimated $100 million at his death in 1909.
The inheritance tax paid by his widow - about $750,000 - was the windfall Utah's Legislature built upon to finance the Capitol. A statue on the Capitol grounds memorializes the railroad tycoon.
In all, the building and its furnishings ultimately cost more than $2.7 million, a shocking amount at the time. The Capitol Commission returned to the Legislature twice for more money, even though it had been enjoined not to spend more than $2.5 million. At that, there was no money for the statues the architect drew into the niches of his Capitol plan.
In 1980, extensive renovation at the Capitol cost more than twice the original expenditure.
Part of the overrun in the original cost was for 20 additional acres to supplement the 20 acres donated by Salt Lake City in 1888 for a Capitol site. The land purchases included homes on the lip of the cliff above City Creek Canyon. Capitol planners wanted a large, unobstructed area for their building and its grounds.
Although the cornerstone-laying was a key event in the construction, groundbreaking had occurred more than a year earlier, on Dec. 26, 1912. Construction started the following April, with the first order of business the removal of about 500,000 cubic feet of foothills soil to prepare the site for the building. Construction was mostly complete by July 1915, but a dedication ceremony was delayed until Oct. 9, 1916. A month into its 1916 session, the Utah Legislature vacated the City-County Building and settled into its new quarters.
A competition had been held to select an architect. Among the prospective designers was Richard M.A. Kletting, a native of Wurt-em-burg, Germany, who came to Utah as a young man and in time earned the title "dean of architects" in the state. Among the buildings he designed were Saltair, the original Salt Palace, the Deseret News Building, the Cullen Hotel, the telephone building, the State Hospital in Provo and numerous schools and residences.
As the final selection meeting of the seven-member Capitol Commission passed the five-hour mark, Kletting gave up and went home. He had to be called back to be told he had won the contest with his Corinthian-styled edifice, patterned after the nation's Capitol. He was given four months to complete working plans.
James Stewart & Co. of New York City and Salt Lake City won the construction contract.
One of the big debates as construction forged ahead was whether Georgia marble or Utah marble should be used to face the interior. The commission had vowed to use only Utah materials if they were available, but Georgia marble was cheaper and was available in larger slabs. In the end, there was compromise, with Georgia marble used on the main floor and Utah marble for the legislative chambers and Supreme Court.
Thousands of Utahns and other visitors to the Capitol have looked for images in the decorative marble, including - it is said - a double-image portrait in stone of Queen Elizabeth on the ground floor.
On June 30, 1980, the Capitol literally lost its top when winds ranging up to 70 mph sheared off the copper sheeting that had been added to the dome in 1932. A new copper sheathing replaced the damaged coat.
Although Kletting's statues never materialized, the Capitol has been a showcase for art by both local and national artists.
But the tiny community of Birdseye, Utah County, furnished the travertine marble for the walls of the formal reception room.
Kings, queens and presidents have been hosted in the Gold Room, which cost $65,000 in 1916. The price included a $5,000 ceiling painting by New York artist Lewis Schettle.
Among Utah artists who contributed to Capitol artwork was sculptor Cyrus E. Dallin. His statue of Massasoit, an Indian friend to early American Pilgrims, still guards the south approach to the building.
A second Dallin piece, "The Signal of Peace," was the focus of a charming story in the lore of Capitol art.
The "Signal of Peace" was a replica of a piece Dallin had shown at the Chicago World's Fair. Over time, the Utah copy had deteriorated. Part of one hand and the Indian's long lance were missing, as were his horse's bridle and part of its lower jaw.
In the early 1920s, incensed at what he felt was a poor replication and saying he never authorized the use of his name on the Capitol version, Dallin went to the Capitol with a lawyer and a friend to insist it be destroyed.
While two Supreme Court justices inspected the statue, the artist broke one of the horse's legs, the story says. He was placed under arrest by Justice William McCarty for destroying state property. The Massasoit replica was part of his ordered restitution.
The "Signal of Peace," which Dallin had based on one of Buffalo Bill's Indian performers, was "unceremoniously thrown out" of the Capitol in 1967 and put in the Sons of Utah Pioneers Museum, a history of the building recounts.
More durable artwork in the Capitol memorializes important Utah historic events.
Although the splendid building that crests State Street has long been an object of state pride, being proclaimed one of the most beautiful state buildings in the Union, it is not Utah's first government center.
A short time after Mormon pioneers arrived in Utah, a commission was empaneled to select a site for a capital. On Oct. 19, 1851, the commission forwarded its recommendation to Brigham Young. The site chosen was Fillmore, the geographic midpoint of Utah Territory.
In January 1852, Young appointed Truman O. Angell, best remembered as architect of the Salt Lake Temple, to design a building for what was expected to become the state Capitol. Construction began that spring, aided by a $20,000 grant from Congress as a first - and last - installment.
Only the south wing of Angell's plan for a three-winged structure materialized. It was constructed of red sandstone from the mountains east of Fillmore, with hand-hewn lumber hauled from Parowan. On its facade was printed the motto, "United We Stand, Divided Fall, for Union is Power and God Loves it."
The Territorial Legislature met under the gracefully curved ceiling from 1855 to 1858, except in 1857, when the Utah War kept state leaders close to Salt Lake City.
The first criminal case tried in the Fillmore Capitol involved John Wigons, who was found guilty of profane swearing and fined $5.
Clearly, however, the City of the Great Salt Lake was becoming the center of territorial activity, and plans for a state capital in Fillmore were dropped. The Fillmore misstep in state evolution was described later as one of the few bad decisions Brigham Young made in his ambitious colonizing plans.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Utah members of U.S. House
Name term
Clarence E. Allen (R) 1895-1896
William H. King (D) 1896-1902
Brigham H. Roberts (D) 1899-1902
George Sutherland (R) 1901-1904
Joseph Howell (R) 1903-1916
Jacob Johnson (R) 1913-1914
James H. Mays (D) 1915-1920
Milton H. Welling (D) 1917-1920
Don B. Colton (R) 1921-1932
E.O. Leatherwood (R) 1921-1930
Frederic C. Loofbourow (R) 1931-1932
Abe Murdock (D) 1933-1940
J. Will Robinson (D) 1933-1946
Walter K. Granger (D) 1941-1952
William A Dawson (D) 1947-1948
Reva B. Bosone (D) 1949-1952
Douglas R. Stringfellow (R) 1953-1954
William A. Dawson (R) 1953-1958
Henry A. Dixon (R) 1955-1960
David S. King (D) 1959-1962
N. Blaine Peterson (D) 1961-1962
Laurence J. Burton (R) 1963-1970
Sherman P. Lloyd (R) 1963-1972
K. Gunn McKay (D) 1971-1978
Wayne Owens* (D) 1973-1974
Allen T. Howe (D) 1975-1976
Dan Marriott (R) 1977-1984
James V. Hansen (R) 1981-
Howard Nielsen (R) 1983-1990
David Monson (R) 1985-1986
*Wayne Owens (D) 1987-1992
Bill Orton (D) 1991-
Karen Shepherd (D) 1993-1994
Enid Greene Waldholtz (R) 1995-