Built to Endure
Opened 2024 — Ground Floor, East Wing Special Exhibits Room
People who work in, and take care of, the Capitol are most successful when they think long-term. Whether it is crafting policies or purchasing furniture, foresight is key!
Unfortunately, the Capitol’s caretakers haven’t always been very good at this. In the mid twentieth century many original items were removed, and replaced with newer, trendier pieces that didn’t fit a Gilded Age building.
After years of neglect and short-sighted changes, the entire building was restored to its original Victorian grandeur from 1987-1992. The project won several state and national awards for engineering and preservation.
The standards set during that restoration continue to inform and guide everyday care for our Capitol. If we are good stewards, it will outlast everyone who visits and serves here today.
May it long stand as a proud monument to the perseverance and endurance of the great State of Michigan!
Vault Door & Safe Relics
The people who built our Capitol understood that it was more than a building – it is a symbol of Michigan’s growth, prosperity, and hope for the future. Constructed using ancient and modern materials and methods, the Capitol was designed to stand for centuries.
Nothing says money quite like a big vault door! From about 1900-1924, it safeguarded cash, bonds, and important legal documents held by the State Treasurer in his first-floor office. It was then relocated for use on a second vault on the ground floor.
House Rostrum
Michigan’s economy boomed in the 1870s thanks to lumbering, mining, and the burgeoning furniture industry. Some of the Capitol’s most spectacular custom pieces, like the original House rostrum, were crafted of solid, old-growth walnut by the Feige Brothers Company of Saginaw.
Unfortunately, many of the Capitol’s original furnishings were discarded as technologies and tastes changed. In the 1930s, the top of the rostrum was cut off during the installation of an electrical voting system.
Thankfully someone saw the value of the old rostrum top, spiriting it away for use as a coffee table before donating it to The Blanchard House museum in Ionia. The Ionia County Historical Society gifted it back to the Capitol in 2014.
In 2022 the Michigan State Capitol commissioned another talented Michigan woodworker and conservator to build a new walnut base for the original rostrum top. With good care, we expect both sections to survive another hundred years!
Senate Side Chandelier
At one time the Senate Chamber was home to at least ten of these lights that hung from the sides of the viewing gallery balcony. They can be seen in historic photographs of the chamber in the 1940s and 1950s.
Lynn Conarton Nethaway worked for in the Senate as a journal clerk, committee clerk, and was one of the first women to manage a legislative office. As a long-time employee, she recognized the historical value of furnishings removed from the Capitol, acquiring this light during a 1960s remodel.
Lynn’s daughters, Nancy and Marsha, donated the chandelier in 2022. A local company restored the century-old fixture, which is still beautiful and functional today!
“Mom had the chandelier hanging in the living room in two of her homes and in the dining room of her final home. It was only packed away twice.”
-Marsha Nethaway Trayler, daughter of Lynn Nethaway
Bookcase Reborn
No place in the Capitol has changed more than the west wing, the old home of the Michigan State Library. Originally designed to hold at least 100,000 books, the Library occupied the second, third, and fourth floors, with two intermediate galleries. Over 100 strong walnut bookcases stood at right angles from the walls, holding state publications, legal tomes, and a general reference collection.
Libraries have a way of growing! In 1922, State Librarian Mary Spencer moved the bulk of the collection from the Capitol to the new State Office Building (now the Elliott-Larsen Building), reluctantly leaving the law books behind. The legal collection stayed on the second floor of the Capitol until 1970, when the Supreme Court moved it to the Law Building (now the G. Mennen Williams Building).
In the 1970s, the former law library was gutted and remodeled into legislative office space. The remainder of the old bookcases were sent to a warehouse, where they gathered dust.
One day, the warehouse manager was told to send it all to the dump. Thankfully, he suggested that his neighbor, amateur woodworker, Larry Lindemann, might be able to make better use of it. Multiple trailer-loads later, Lindemann had a barn full of reclaimed wood.
Slowly, cautiously, Lindemann disassembled the shelves and selectively incorporated the walnut into gifts he made for family and friends. Knowing he was a steward of something important, he made sure each recipient knew what they had, and how special it was.
In 2020 Larry and his wife Marilyn generously gifted the remaining library wood back to the Michigan State Capitol. For Capitol and Library staff, it was nothing short of miraculous to know that some of the bookcases had survived.
The talented Michigan Senate carpenters offered to rebuild one of the missing bookcases. Using the wood that Larry saved, Kurt Hargrove, Rick Gray, and Tony Schafer skillfully recreated this beautiful piece.
Today, this bookcase stands as a reminder of the old west wing library. We are grateful that, several decades after its destruction, the stars aligned, and we have a wonderful new old library bookcase back in the Capitol again!