Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 37/Oregon's New Capitol
OREGON'S NEW CAPITOL
By CHARLES A. SPRAGUE
A CAPITOL native to Oregon, interpreting the history and tradition of the state, and molding into architectural form the feeling and temper of the people, was the conception of the architects who have been commissioned to design a new capitol to replace the one destroyd by fire the night of April 25, 1935. The winners of the architectural competition, concluded May 26, were Trowbridge and Livingston and Francis Keally, associated architects of New York City. The groundwork of their effort, before they began their sketches, was a perusal of Oregon history rather than a study of the plans of other capitols. Out of this study grew the inspiration embodied in the design which won the competition.
The building design defies conventional dating, because it is not copied from a pattern; yet its originality is tempered by conformity to sound principles of mass and of line. The design springs out of the good ancestry of the Greek, with its simple rectangular form, its balance and its restraint. It departs from the Greek in absence of details, such as the cornice and decorated capitals. It breathes the modern in its effective use of flat planes and vertical lines.
The structure includes the rectangular mass which forms the body of the building, and the circular tower which rises from the center of the base, topped, not by the conventional dome, but by a low conical roof supporting a statue of heroic size, an effigy of the pioneer. The longitudinal plane is broken on the front by the projecting facade and on the rear by a shallow wing. Imposing entrance doors of the recessed entrance are surmounted by a replica of the great seal of the state. Two features give architectural accent to the whole. One is the cylinder tower as substitute for the dome, which is unique in all architectural literature. The other is the design of the columns or buttresses which emphasize the vertical. In the base these columns divide the great windows of the legislative halls. They are rectangular to conform to the general line of the structure, and are not bound by capitals at the top. These are matched by similar columns in the tower, alike without capitals, creating the illusion of height and freedom. Their square sections break the roundness of the tower's circle.
The whole composition offers a chaste simplicity, an impressive dignity, and a challenging individuality which should not only please the people as it already has the critics, but should gain for Oregon's capitol wide renown.
While the form of the building is stripped of ornamentation provision is made for the appropriate embellishment of the edifice. Flanking the main entrance are two detached groups of sculpture whose themes will be drawn from Oregon history. On the opposite side the Circuit Rider statue will be moved to center in the ellipse of the driveway, and to front across the street toward the campus of Willamette University. On the interior the rotunda is to be done in mosaic reviewing the history of Oregon and depicting the figures who have been identified with its development.
The architects have announced their intention of selecting only the best of materials for use in construction, preferring those from Oregon if they are suitable and available. The exterior will be faced with stone.
The distinctive beauty of the building from the outside does not minimize in any degree the utility of the interior from the standpoint of convenience of the working staff and the patrons of the public offices. The principal administrative offices are grouped on the first floor: Secretary of state, state treasurer, state tax commission, state land board, board of control, budget director. On the second floor, which is reached by broad stairways leading from the central lobby, are the legislative chambers at each end of the structure, and the governor's suite in the south wing, between the legislative halls, offices of the president of the senate, speaker of the house and committee rooms for the legislative staff and committees. Additional committee rooms are arranged on fourth floor levels at the two ends of the building. There are no offices in the central tower. In the basement working offices are arranged in the south half, storage space in the north half with a cafe and barber shop in the center.
Provision will be made for the proper lighting, heating and ventilating of all parts of the building in conformity with the best scientific knowledge of the day.
The plan of the building has been adapted to the site selected by act of the legislature: the narrow tract owned by the state between State and Court streets in the City of Salem where the territorial capitol stood which was destroyed by fire in 1854, and where the state capitol stood, which was erected in 1873–1876. Through the gift of the City of Salem and with the consent of the heirs of Dr. and Mrs. William H. Willson, the eastern portion of Willson Park, contiguous on the west with the capitol grounds, has been added to the state's property. This will permit the placing of the capitol farther to the west than the old building, so its approach axis will be up Summer Street, with its longitudinal axis running the long way of the tract of the state grounds and the park.
The site plan submitted by the successful architects contemplates the acquisition ultimately of the four blocks fronting Summer Street, between Court and Center streets, developing an esplanade as approach to the main entrance of the capitol, with driveways on each side of the parkway, and with future buildings of the capitol group erected at the center of each of the four blocks. This would make provision for a state library, an office building, a state museum, and an additional unit. Legislative action will be required to adopt the plan for the state and to authorize any additional buildings.
The dimensions of the new capitol are: Length 396 feet; width, 160 feet in the center, 96 feet in the wings; height overall, from base to top of statue, 164 feet; of the main building, 60 feet. The old capitol had a height of 187 feet to the top of the dome and of 75 feet for the building proper. The length of the old building was 286 feet and its width 146 feet. Its wings were 92 feet wide.
Funds in the amount of $2,500,000 have been provided for the new capitol, but the limit set by the capitol reconstruction commission for the cost of the building proper is $2,200,000, at a unit cost of 80 cents per cubic foot. The architects will receive six percent of the construction costs as their fee. Under the conditions of the competition an Oregon firm of architects has been appointed as supervising architects, the men selected being Morris H. Whitehouse and Walter E. Church of Portland. They receive one-third of the commission allowance for architects.
Construction of the sub-structure will start in September. The building is expected to be completed in two years.
Thirteen months elapsed from the time of the fire until the selection of the architect for the new capitol was announced. In that interval important decisions were made as to location of the capitol, its cost, the authority to handle construction, and the method of selecting the architect.
Immediately after the embers of the fire had cooled, the board of control, acting on the report of engineers and architects, ordered the demolition of the walls of the old capitol. On May 8 some taxpayers of Marion County brought an injunction suit against razing the walls, on the ground that the legislature alone could dispose of the walls. Circuit Judge Lewelling of Marion County ruled against the plaintiffs and the work proceeded as a project of the state emergency relief administration. A large quantity of brick was salvaged for use at state institutions in the vicinity of Salem.
At the direction of Governor Charles H. Martin, the newly created Oregon state planning commission began to make studies of Oregon's needs for a new statehouse. The commission's inquiry extended to experience of other states and to the rate of growth of government departments. The commission issued interim reports and a final report. In general it recommended acquisition of a spacious campus of not less than 25 acres for capitol grounds, and construction of a capitol group instead of a single building.
Based on the findings of the planning commission Governor Martin applied for a grant from the public works administration of forty-five percent of the estimated cost of the capitol, $3,500,000. This was readily approved by the public works administration, President Roosevelt, the day after the fire having offered to Governor Martin federal assistance for the rebuilding.
Sharp controversy prevailed over the location for the new capitol. Leading citizens of Salem urged acquisition of the eighteen-acre campus of Willamette University, adjacent to the old site, with removal of the university to a new plant to be erected in Bush's pasture. Governor Martin recommended consideration for a spacious 90-acre tract known as Candalaria Heights on the hills south of Salem, overlooking the valley. A large number of people urged reconstruction on the old site, as the historic location for the capitol, the center of political tradition, convenient to the business district of Salem and to the three other units of the capitol group. An opinion of the attorney general that the building must be located within the limits of the City of Salem as they existed in 1864, when the state by popular vote fixed the capitol at Salem, did not settle the controversy and it became the subject of a memorable battle in the special legislative session which began on October 21, 1935.
Committees which considered and framed the legislation on the capitol were: Senate--F. M. Franciscovich, Clatsop County, chairman; Robert M. Duncan, Malheur County; Peter Zimmerman, Yamhill County; Walter Fisher, Douglas County; Douglas McKay, Marion County; N. G. Wallace, Deschutes County; Walter E. Pearson, Multnomah County. House--Ellis Barnes, Multnomah County, chairman; C. F. Hyde, Lane County; W. A. Johnson, Josephine County; D. A. Norton, William L. Graham, Homer D. Angell, Multnomah County; Alex Rennie, Benton County; E. W. Kirkpatrick, Clackamas County; Vernon D. Bull, Union County; Carl Engdahl, Umatilla County.
After defeating minority reports, one by Zimmerman to construct a $2,000,000 capitol on the old site, and one by Fisher to build one for $2,500,000 on the old site, the senate passed a bill appropriating $3,500,000, but specifying that three blocks along Court Street west of Capitol Street be acquired for addition to the capitol grounds. The house, under Democratic control while the senate was Republican, rebelled at this designation of property to be bought and amended the bill to empower the commission to buy land either on Candalaria Heights or adjacent to the old site. The amount of the appropriation, $3,500,000
was not changed. The senate refused to concur in the amendments and amended the report of the conference committee to limit the location to the old site and the appropriation to $2,500,000. Attempts were then made to effect a compromise at $3,000,000 with the capitol commission still having authority 
In the closing hours of the session, near midnight of November 9, limited by law to twenty days, the house bowed to the will of the senate and approved the bill with a $2,500,000 appropriation, the state's portion, fifty-five percent, being spread over a three-year term for imposition of taxes; and locating the site for the capitol on the land "now owned by the state” and defining its boundaries,—in other words, the old site. Administration of the act was vested in a state capitol reconstruction commission, to be composed of nine citizens of Oregon appointed three each by the governor of the state, the president of the senate, the speaker of the house. Governor Martin on November 15 transmitted the engrossed bill to the secretary of state, allowing it to become a law without his signature.
The commission was appointed on November 25, of the following: T. H. Banfield, Portland; Dr. E. C. Dalton, St. Helens; J. H. Lake, Portland; George R. Lewis, Pendleton; G. A. Marshall, Baker; J. A. McLean, Eugene; Dr. H. H. Olinger, Salem; R. W. Sawyer, Bend; Mrs. Gordon Voorhies, Medford. On December 1 the commission met in Salem and organized by electing J. A. McLean chairman and Dr. H. H. Olinger, vice chairman. Subsequently Alton John Bassett of Portland was elected secretary.
For technical adviser the commission on January 2, 1936, engaged Carl F. Gould, a noted architect of Seattle. Decision was made to hold a nation-wide competition under a program to be laid out by Mr. Gould and approved by the American Institute of Architects. The program was given to the architects desiring to compete in early March, with May 22nd as the deadline for receipt of the plans.
One hundred twenty-three plans were submitted in the competition submitted by architects in seventeen states and the District of Columbia. The plans were judged under strict conditions of anonymity by the following jury: T. H. Banfield and Mrs. Gordon Voorhies representing the commission; E. B. MacNaughton of Portland, representing the public; Walter Horstman Thomas of Philadelphia and David Clark Allison of Los Angeles, architects chosen from outside the state.
Opening the envelopes containing names of the winners revealed that the plans given first rank by the jury were drawn by Trowbridge and Livingston, and Francis Keally, associated architects of New York City. Those ranking below the winner, but not rated by individual order of merit, were plans designed by William Peyton Day of San Francisco; Wesley Sherwood Bessell, New York City; Walter T. Karcher and Livingston Smith of Philadelphia; John A. Thompson and Gerald A. Holmes of New York City; de Young and Moscowitz of New York City with Karl W. Rosenberg of Portland as associate. Each of these five was awarded a cash prize of $1500.
The successful architects are noted as among the most distinguished and successful in the United States. The firm of Trowbridge and Livingston were architects for such structures as Chemical National Bank, Bankers Trust Company, Equitable Trust Company, Bank of America, New York Stock Exchange addition, St. Regis Hotel, J. P. Morgan and Company buildings in New York City; Palace Hotel, San Francisco; Mitsui Bank in Tokyo, Japan; United States Post office and Court House, Pittsburg. Mr. Trowbridge died in 1925. Mr. Livingston is the present head of the firm, with George W. Jacoby also a member. Francis Keally maintains his own offices in New York, but joined with Trowbridge and Livingston in this competition. After his professional training in the University of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania and other institutions, he was employed in the offices of the late Cass Gilbert, designer of state capitols in Minnesota, West Virginia and Arkansas, and of the Woolworth building in New York City. Mr. Keally designed the memorial for George Rogers Clark at Harrodsburg, Kentucky. Arriving in Salem after being notified of their appointment as architects, Mr. Keally declared it was their purpose to make Oregon's capitol one of the most beautiful, as well as most practical, capitols in the United States.