Leaving Their Mark on History

It’s a time capsule made of brick and stone. In this special segment from Iowa PBS’s This Old Statehouse project, learn about what was found and what was left as the capitol building was restored.

Narrator: As buildings like the capitol age, they become envoys, transporting images of their eras into the future. Their stories are architectural narratives, their messages are written in stone. The 19th century workers who made sure that those stories would get through to us left behind some conventional messages of their own. Stone masons working on the capitol’s east and north faces have discovered several of their dispatches, among them a piece of roofing copper embossed with the name and address of the sender.

Carl Crees, Stone Mason: I have tried to go through the telephone book and what have you and i’ve never been able to locate anybody.  I’d like to give it to ‘em because it’s a nice piece of memorabilia.

Narrator: Other items found include discarded construction equipment. Tools that once served conventional purposes have taken on an unconventional role as communicators with the future.

Carl Crees, Stone Mason: I found a mallet, it had the handle broke, that they'd throwed back in one of the arches. Plus we found a trowel, a hammer, a few of the things that they've discarded into the cavities therein the walls.  But mostly I think most of it's been the coins, maybe the Indian Head pennies and a few and Buffalo Nickels stuff like that.

Narrator: The coins were probably just a way for the craftsmen to date their work.  But they could have been a foresighted bequest to their modern day counterparts.  Whatever the motivation, today’s stone masons have continued the tradition, stowing a copper time capsule for an upcoming generation to find the next time the structure needs shoring up.

Carl Crees, Stone Mason:  we had an urn that we set on the northeast corner, and at the bottom base, just where the urn sets on, there is a pocket in there and we all put items in it.  We've got the names of everybody that worked on the project.  And we had coins and other objects that we've just stuck in the box. Kind of a time capsule so maybe in future years, some day somebody might run across it.  I hope that I hope it's a long ways away.  I hope this this lasts for 200 years instead of 100. And so it'll be a long time before anybody finds that, but it's in there.

Narrator: Human beings have been leaving their marks in and on stone since the cave painters of Altamira.  Theirs was certainly much more than a “Kilroy was here” urge to paint graffiti. Today, nearly 15 thousand years later, not that much has changed. The workers who designed, built and rebuilt the capitol have left their marks, both at the top of the building and at the height of their careers. Amid the luster of the capitol’s signature formation, rappelling artisans left more than a fresh coating of gold. They also left behind their own signatures.

Tim Vander Well, Gilder: Oh, I suppose we'll find a little corner somewhere on the copper that a kind of out of the way place that nobody'll see and we'll probably sign our name and size and gild it so that next time somebody goes up that high, they'll see our names up there.

Narrator: Restoration architects have literally been all over the building, supervising everything from roofing to plumbing.  Like army brats who struggle to claim one place as home, Scott Allen and his associates may have trouble deciding where to hang their monikers.

Scott Allen, Restoration Architect: I don't know, I dropped a few business cards behind some wood, but I think we have so many so many drawings with our name on it and if you look at my desk at a on a daily basis, and see how much paperwork it generates.  My name's on a lot of that paperwork, so I don't think anybody'll forget who worked on the building in the late part of the 20th century.

Bill Dikis, Restoration Architect: we’d love to have the opportunity to make our mark somewhere within the building but the most important thing is that we've been able to do it. Any mark that we would leave is only second hand to the thrill of being involved in the first place. The ability of a preservation architect to disappear from the current day scene is probably the greatest compliment that we could receive.