The Old State Capitol's Other Side

On a recent winter day, I found myself on the roof of the Old State Capitol clutching the arm—with as much propriety as possible—of a man I had met only thirty minutes before, Carl Smith. Taking in a fresh view of the Mississippi River and the rooftops of other downtown landmarks, I resisted the wintry breeze and fretted about my footing while Smith stood on that roof with all the confidence of someone who takes lunch breaks there. Because he does.

As maintenance supervisor for the Old State Capitol, Smith has shuffled, shimmied, climbed, and crawled his way all over the historic property. In 2014, his arm was clutched by a great number of visitors lucky enough to follow in his footsteps and see parts of the building normally closed to the public.

And isn’t that what intrigues us most on tours of grand properties? What’s behind this door? What’s beyond that cordon? What happened in there? We want to go higher, crouch lower, and press on further to deepen our connection to places deemed culturally significant. More, more, more—and the staff at the Old State Capitol made it their mission to deliver just that on a few occasions in 2014.

It all started last May when Nancy Chesson, the director of events at OSC, contacted the Louisiana Photographic Society (LPS) to request images of facets of the property that the public doesn’t normally see. The group was all too thrilled to acquiesce, especially since the LPS was established sixty years earlier with a meeting and exhibit at the Old State Capitol. A behind-the-scenes photo shoot was planned to give the photographers special access to the building from 6 am until 9 pm. LPS members combed every corner of the circa-1847 structure, capturing images that would soon be on display in the well attended Light of Louisiana exhibit held late in the summer of 2014.

{gallery}Galleries/2015/Capitol1:200:300:1:0{/gallery}One thing is certain: the photographers had fun. Suzette Crocker, the director of the Old State Capitol, observed, “They just had a ball and were climbing all over the building.”

As photographer and LPS member Ken Wilson explained, “It’s a hobby that’s out of control, you know?”

“We went everywhere we possibly could fit,” he said, describing the photo shoot. “Skinny people went places that I couldn’t go. We did the basement, roof, climbed ladders, went up towers, went through trap doors. It was amazing how many things that building has to offer. Kind of like back when you were a kid—it was an opportunity to sneak around and see what others can’t.”

Kathy Reeves, exhibit coordinator for LPS, participated in the photo shoot, too. “I liked to see places I never knew existed. We all got a sense of how precious that building is. Of course we all knew it was a wonderful building, but after being led around by Carl Smith... He was so enthusiastic, it was just contagious. We all felt a sense of pride and now have a protective nature towards it.”

Sounds like a successful collaboration and one that should be replicated far and wide. In fact, a couple of months after the exhibit closed, the Old State Capitol hosted “Nooks & Crannies of the Old State Capitol: An Insider’s Tour” in mid-November. After a talk by architect Kevin Harris, who was involved in the restoration of the property in the 1990s, guests were let loose to explore the building just as the photographers had.

Crocker remembers, “People went crazy and went all over the building from the basement to the roof. We had some first-timers and some who had visited the building many times before but came to see new things.”

And so it was in the spirit of seeing new things that I accepted a last-minute invitation to trail Smith around the building. Soon after arriving at the Old State Capitol, I asked Smith for his take on the photo shoot. “They were climbing around like monkeys. … They were daredevils and walked way out there [on the roof]. These two women in particular, they didn’t care, they just walked on out and took pictures. They wanted to go to the very tip-top, and I had to say no.” A daredevil I am not, so Smith never had to rein me in; but what he did say over and over was, “I’ll show you something even better.”

We began in the basement, where Smith was sure to point out the bases of cast iron columns that climb all the way to the fourth floor. Before I knew it we mounted “secret” stairs to a space above the Senate Chamber where massive cypress beams still support the structure despite being charred in a fire (the Old State Capitol survived a fire during the Civil War and another one in the early 1900s). “Come on, I’ll show you something better.”

{gallery}Galleries/2015/Capitol2:300:150:1:0{/gallery}A few moments later we were twisting ever higher and passing along balconies overlooking the rotunda—“It’s going to get even better”—to reach the catwalks that encircle the stained glass dome, and then still higher only to pop out onto the roof. Losing all track of relative elevation, I somehow descended through a rooftop hatch into the attic space above the House Chamber—“Follow me, this isn’t even the best part”—then moments later laddered myself into a tower flanking the House Chamber to discover “graffiti,” most of which dates from 1912 until 1940. When the House was in session, congressional pages found time to sneak into the space and write their names for us to find all these years later. There were people named Fatty Stannard and Jelly Favrot back in the day; and isn’t that fantastic? Some wrote more than just their names and the date: “I am a page in the House and my name is Joseph Smith. I am here July 3, 1904, but God knows best where he will be in July 1906.”

Now this is the stuff that history buffs live for, and though Carl Smith was not a history buff before joining the OSC maintenance department, he certainly is now. At one point during the tour, Smith read my mind and said, “You’ll never look at this place in the same way again.” He’s right. That kind of access to a place could make historians and preservationists of us all.

Photos by Cathy Smart (Old State Capitol) and Anne Craven (pages' graffiti).

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Louisiana Photographic Society
Visit laphotosociety.com for information on membership, meetings, field trips, and upcoming exhibits.

Old State Capitol
100 North Boulevard
Baton Rouge, La
(225) 342-0500
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