July 30, 2014 – Lansing, Michigan State Capitol

This morning, Joe and Jeanne joined Debbie and I for a trip to Lansing to visit Michigan’s State Capitol (our sixteenth this far).

The first state capitol was located in Detroit, the original capital of Michigan, and was relocated to Lansing in 1847, due to the need to develop the western portions of the state and for easy defense from British troops stationed in Windsor, Ontario. The present capitol building, preceded by a temporary wood frame structure, was dedicated in January 1879, and is designed in a Neo-classical style, more specifically the Italianate style.

The Michigan State Capitol is 267 feet from the ground to the tip of finial/spire above the dome.The building is 420 feet and two inches long and 273 feet and 11 inches wide. The capitol occupies 1.16 acres, has a perimeter of 1,520 feet. There are four stories in the building, with public entrances on the ground floor. Two grand staircases in the north and south corridors go up to the top floor. The rotunda measures 44.5 feet in diameter and 160 feet in height measured from the floor to the oculus or circular opening in the center of a dome.

The eight pictures under the dome depicting the muses of art, agriculture, law, science, justice, industry, commerce and education

were painted by an Italian Thommaso Juglaris … who never visited Michigan … while he was teaching in Boston.

Completed in 1879, it was designed by Elijah E. Myers, who also designed the state capitol buildings in Texas, Idaho, Utah and Colorado.

In the center of the building’s rotunda is a 44½’ glass-tiled floor made up of 976 pieces of glass, each about 5/8” thick. It creates an optical illusion when seen from above. The higher one gets above the floor, the more the floor appears to be a bowl.

View from the Second Floor

View from the Third Floor

View from the Fourth Floor

Twenty chandeliers light the capitol’s main corridors. Originally lit by gas (the building was dedicated on the same day Thomas Edison made his first public demonstration of electric lights) they are ornamented with an elk and shield from the state’s coat-of-arms.

The doorknobs and door hinges also feature the Michigan coat-of-arms.

Even the stairways are interesting … with painting above each

and ornately carved railings.

Other sites of interest include:

House Chamber

Skylight ceiling – one panel for each state … in the order they entered the Union

Senate Chamber

Original Supreme Court Chamber

  Governor’s Formal Office

  Finally, there is an almost unbelievable Etch-a-Sketch drawing of the Capitol … I was lucky if I could manage a single straight line!

The grounds around the State Capitol have far fewer statues that surround most state capitol complexes. However, there are several memorializing Michigan veterans from the Civil War through VietNam.

Civil War Sharpshooter

Spanish-American War

World War I, World War II, Korea and VietNam

There is also a statue of former Austin Blair, Governor of Michigan during the Civil War … when Michigan sent a higher percentage (25%) of its men to fight than any other state.
There are also two Catawba trees, one of which is believed to have been planted before construction began and is thus more than 140 years old.

leaving Lansing, we located the World’s Largest Lugnut.
When Lansing acquired a minor league baseball team in 1995, there was much ado about what to name it, especially when the team announced that it would be calling itself the Lansing Lugnuts. The people of Lansing went into a furor, but the team refused to budge. It had successfully pleaded with the Hasbro toy company to give up the Lugnut trademark it had reserved for a future toy design, and the team was sticking with the name it had won. Eventually the furor tuned into equally heartfelt support. “Let’s Go Nuts!” is the town’s favorite cheer. Although the team inexplicably chose to display a large bolt as its insignia, a factory about a block south of Oldmobile Park Stadium erected the World’s Largest Lugnut on its smokestack so that fans could have a clear image of what their team is really all about. Its silver gleam can be seen from the stadium, with the best close-up viewing at the corner of Larch and Michigan.

Back at our campground and shortly after a brief downpour, lo and behold, there was a hot air balloon drifting by a fading rainbow.

while overhead, we spotted a drone …

Fortunately, this one being operated by another RVer and not the NSA!

Then, we were treated to another incredible sunset across the lake across from where we are parked.