Friday, October 18, 2024. Des Moines.
October has been a complicated month of travel for the Wests. When Tim realized he had a work trip in Minnesota while we would be camping due south in a small town in Missouri without close access to an airport, he decided to drive it. He asked if I’d like to ride with him and spend time together rather than fly, and of course I said YES! It would be nice to sleep in a big king-sized bed for a few days.
He rented a car on his way home from the airport last week so we would take that rather than put extra miles on the truck. Plus, if we leave the truck parked with the Airstream it gives the appearance we are home. We left yesterday (Thursday) from Marceline, visited the Hoover Presidential Library and National Historic Site in West Bend Iowa (different passports), spent the night in Iowa City, then drove to the State Capitol this morning on our way up to Minnesota.
The Iowa Capitol is a pretty building. It has the “wow” factor. When I asked Tim what he liked about the building, he said he liked the domes amongst other things. I concurred. It has five domes on top. The center dome is covered in 23-karat gold leaf. The most recent re-gilding began in 1998 and was completed in 1999 at a cost of approximately $400,000. All I can say is WOW 🤯😳. The other four domes are copper with gold leaf stripes.
Construction of the Capitol began in 1871 and was completed in 1886. The building feels “original,” another thing Tim likes. Even though they have done some restoration, you get the sense an old, antique building. When you walk through the halls, it’s like you are transported to a time and place 150 years ago. It’s a timepiece from that era.
Ground Floor. We didn’t get to take the guided tour since we were pressed for time to get to Tim’s site visit, so Tim acted as our tour guide. He’s not quite as old as our last one, and a lot less eccentric 🤪 😂. He was actually really good! Their self-guided tour brochure is very well laid out, and highlights some important facts about the art and architecture we would see along the way. Some of the facts in this blog are borrowed from the brochure.
Visitors enter on the ground floor on the side of the building, where security checks your bags and asks you to walk through a metal detector. You are greeted by a series of tables and chairs and a cafeteria, which serve as a lunch room when legislature is in session. A school group gathered in these tables while we were there as well. The Iowa State Capitol Tour Guide desk and Gift Shop are located toward the center of the building near the rotunda. We stamped our passport, picked up our brochure, and listened to some tips on what to look for. There are a few facts on a plaque about the fire of 1904 near the stairs, but the main tour starts on the first floor.
First Floor. The first thing you notice is the rotunda, with stairwells and wings leading to various suites. According to the brochure, the building’s interior is furnished with 29 types of marble and a variety of woods.
The reception room to the Governor’s Suite has high ceilings and a beautiful chandelier (which I would hate to have the task of cleaning). Visitors can’t go beyond the ropes, but it was fun to peek inside.
In the hallway outside the governor’s suite, there is an encased collection of “first lady” dolls dressed in their inaugural gowns. Currently they have a female governor (Kim Reynolds), the first female governor in Iowa, so there is one lonely male doll front and center representing her spouse. That was a unique display we haven’t seen in another Capitol to date.
There was a very large model of the USS Iowa battleship on loan from the U.S. Navy Department, in one of the first floor wings. It’s a World War II era battleship and frankly, pretty incredible. The model is 18 feet seven inches long and weighs approximately 1,350 pounds.
I love the ceilings and columns shown here.
Underneath the rotunda is a block glass floor with the grand staircase in the background.
The Old Supreme Court Chamber is on this floor as well.
In the Secretary of State’s Office, a staffer unveiled Iowa’s original constitution where it is covered with a thick cloth, then she proceeded to tell a brief story about it. The original Iowa Constitution, signed in 1857, was restored in 1988 and is protected in a specifically designed case. Iowa has the second shortest constitution in the United States at 40 pages (Vermont has 20 pages). In perspective, Alabama has the longest state constitution at 300 pages! I loved reading the words written in the old script. It seems we have lost that art over the years. That was a unique and surprising find in the Capitol.
Second Floor. The marble and granite Grand Staircase leads to the second floor. There are some other interesting facts about this in the brochure which I won’t repeat here, but you can perhaps see by the pictures it is a beautiful staircase. I liked the six mosaics on the wall of the third floor, also seen from the first floor just above the mural. More on that later.
From the second floor we got a better view of the paintings on the rotunda. Eight half-mooned shaped paintings and 12 statues. The paintings—called lunettes, tell the story of the “Progress of Civilization.”
We found the State Library of Iowa – the Law Library to be very appealing. It was probably my favorite part of the whole building. The library encompasses the entire west wing of the second floor. I loved the white iron spiral staircases and matching railing that framed the bookcases, filled with over 100,000 legal volumes. The staircase was a bit scary for me, but I climbed it anyway as it gave a different perspective on the library worth seeing.
but we can relate to the sign 😂.
Third Floor. This is where you can stand in front of the six mosaics and see the details of the tiny tiles. The craftsmanship takes my breath away.
I read a plaque that said it cost $10,000 to commission the artist. That was a long time ago, but I still thought that was an amazing deal. The mosaics symbolize Defense, Charities, the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches of Iowa, and Education. Pictured here is “education.”
The galleries for the House of Representatives and Senate are also accessible from this floor, on either end of the rotunda. They don’t include the third floor in the self-guided tour brochure for some reason, maybe because it’s just the galleries. It was a challenge to find the elevator to get up there, and the stairs were closed off, but we really enjoyed the close-up view of the chandelier overlooking the House once we found it. Those galleries are tight, with very narrow walkways between rows, again challenging for someone with acrophobia!
I hope you enjoyed our tour of the State of Iowa Capitol in Des Moines. Next time you are in Iowa, take an hour and go see it for yourself. If you know of anything additional about this Capitol, or have your own personal story to share, please comment below!
À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!