Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 102

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452

USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations > Part 102

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The doorways of the Senate Chamber were orna- mented with a sculptured cornice familiar to the architecture of seventy years ago. A tall Dutch clock, that for nearly a century noted the official hours of assembling and adjourning, was a main feature of the chamber. The galleries were a fiction of language, being on the same level as the main floor.

JAMES W. EATON.

The subject of this sketch, James Webster Eaton, was born August 22, 1817, at Summerville, N. J. His father, Josiah Eaton, came from Keene, N. H., and was descended from old Puritan stock which had taken root in the Massachusetts Bay Colony

in the early days, whence the descendants had spread out over New England. His mother, Ger- trude MacEaton, was of Scotch-German parentage and was born in New Jersey. Both were intelligent, industrious, God-fearing people. In 1828, young Eaton removed with his parents to Albany, where, not long after, he began to learn the trade of his father, that of a stonemason. Born with the heri- tage of respectable poverty, which has been the spur of ambition to so many, he diligently laid hold of every opportunity for self-improvement, and while he spent the summer working at his trade, in the winter he attended the old Lancaster School and a private school kept by Mr. Fitch, both of which are names familiar to many old Albanians, who gained there that modest, but effi- cient education which has been so great an element in their subsequent success. In 1840, Mr. Eaton married Eliza M. Benner, who is still living. By this marriage there were three children, two of whom survive: Calvin Ward, who is a member of the firm of Van Santford & Eaton, wholesale lumber dealers, and James Webster, Jr., who is a recent graduate of Yale and the senior partner of the law firm of Eaton & Kirchwey. About the time of his marriage, Mr. Eaton embarked in the building business which he has since followed. His sterling integrity, indomitable purpose and business sagacity, slowly, but surely, won for him the victory over adverse circumstances. The his- tories of such lives would be interesting commen- taries on the influence of character over fortune, if they could be written out; but such a history must usually be read in the tangible achievements of painstaking effort. In his business career, Mr. Eaton has probably done as much as any other one man to beautify the city of his residence. Over five hundred of the most noteworthy of the public and business buildings, and the most ele- gant of the private residences in Albany, have been erected by him, and his reputation as a builder is unsurpassed. In 1874, he was appointed by Gov- ernor Dix, Superintendent of Construction of the New Capitol, an office which he held during four successive administrations until the position itself was abolished in 1883. This magnificent structure, most of which was erected under his supervision, and over the practical details of which he had control, is an enduring monument to his adminis- trative capacity as well as mechanical skill. In these days of political jobs, it is a significant and gratifying fact, that men of all political faiths who are conversant with the management of this great work, unite voluntarily, asserting that no suspi- cion of unfairness or undue partizanship has ever clung to him. Whatever may be the criticisms made upon the design of the Capitol, or the ma- terials used in it, or the method of administration under the old Commission-for which Mr. Eaton was of course in no way responsible and over which he had no control-it is safe to assert, without fear of contradiction, that the State never had a more honest, fearless, and efficient servant. So far as the appointments made by him, per- sonally, were concerned, his administration was an

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admirable exemplification of practical Civil Service reform.

Since his retirement from the Capitol, Mr. Eaton has devoted himself principally to the management and improvement of his real estate, of which he has a considerable amount in and about the city.

During the greater part of his life, Mr. Eaton has been a consistent member of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, and for many years President of the Board of Trustees of the Hudson Avenue Soci- ety, now known as the First M. E. Church. Mr. Eaton has always enjoyed, in very large measure,

the esteem, confidence and respect of his fellow citizens; but only to those who have known him intimately has it been given to fully appreciate the genial kindliness, the large-hearted sympathy, and unobtrusive generosity which has endeared him to many. As a loving husband and father, as an up- right official, as a useful and successful member of society, and above all, asa good man in the highest sense of the term, it has seemed to us that the history of Albany would be incomplete without this little sketch of his life, especially in connection with the New Capitol.

THE NEW CAPITOL. From Osgood's "Public Service of the State of New York."

THE NEW CAPITOL.

The seat of government of New York, during the colonial period, was in the City of New York. There the Colonial Legislature generally held its sessions, at first, at the fort. It sometimes con- vened in Jamaica, L. I. At length it met regularly in the New York City Hall.

New York City was regarded as the capital dur- ing the revolution; but when the British Army took possession of it, the Legislature was compelled to meet at places regarded most safe from the attacks of the British-as at White Plains, Albany, King- ston and Poughkeepsie. After the British evacu- ated New York, the Legislature assembled at these places or in New York. The places designated for each session were fixed by a vote of the Legisla- ture, or by the Governor. Since 1798 the legisla- lative sessions have been held entirely at Albany.

As the growth of the State had rendered the Old Capitol too limited for legislative and other pur- poses, the subject of erecting a New Capitol at Al- bany began to be agitated. But it took no definite form until April 24, 1863, when, on motion of Hon. James A. Bell, Senator from Jefferson County, the Senate referred the subject to the Trus- tees of the Capitol and the Committee on Public Buildings.

In 1865, the Senate appointed a committee of three to receive propositions from various cities of the State, as to what action they would take in re- gard to the removal of the capital of the State from Albany. The question of its removal at that time was considerably agitated. No satisfactory results were reached by the action of this committee, ex- cept in response to the circular issued by it. Albany proposed to convey Congress Hall Block, or any other lands in the city, required for the purpose of

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a New Capitol. This proposal was at once accepted, and, on May 1, 1865, an act authorizing the erec- tion of a New Capitol, at Albany, passed the Legis- lature. The grand structure now known as the New Capitol was, by excavating and laying founda- tions, begun July 7, 1869.

It was not until early in the summer of 1871 that the superstructure was ready to receive the corner-stone. June 24, 1871, was designated as the day. The exercises attending this work were grand and imposing. An introductory address was delivered by the Hon. Hamilton Harris, fol- lowed by reading a list of the documents placed in the corner-stone, by Hon. William A. Rice; an ad- dress by Governor John T. Hoffman; and Masonic ceremonies conducted by Most Worshipful John Anton, Grand Master of the Grand Masonic Lodge of the State.

The liberal spirit of the citizens of Albany was exhibited in a marked manner in the erection of the New Capitol. To Hon. Hamilton Harris, President of the Board of Capitol Commissioners, and to his exertions in the Senate, the State and the City of Albany are largely indebted for the suc- cessful manner in which the work was from the first pushed forward. By a concurrent resolution adopted May 14, 1878, the Legislature declared the new building to be the Capitol of the State of New York, and it was formally occupied as such January 7, 1879. The same evening the citizens of Albany gave a reception in honor of the event, and commemorative exercises were held under authority of the Legislature on the 12th of February following.

NEW CAPITOL COMMISSIONERS .- Hamilton Harris, May 3, 1866; John V. L. Pruyn, May 3, 1866; Obadiah B. Latham, May 3, 1866; James S. Thayer, May 19, 1868; William A. Rice, May 19, 1868; James Terwilliger, May 19, 1868; John T. Hudson, May 19, 1868; Alonzo B. Cornell, May 19, 1868.

SECOND BOARD .- Hamilton Harris, April 26, 1871; William C. Kingsley, April 26, 1871; Will- iam A. Rice, April 26, 1871; Chauncey M. Depew, April 26, 1871; Delos De Wolf, April 26, 1871; Edwin A. Merritt, April 26, 1871.

ARCHITECTS -Thomas Fuller, August 12, 1868; Eidlitz, Richardson & Co., September 12, 1876.

SUPERINTENDENTS .- John Bridgeford, September 10, 1868; William J. McAlpine, June 11, 1873; James W. Eaton, June 12, 1874.

The Second Board was superseded by Act of the Legislature of 1875, and the Lieutenant-Governor, Attorney-General, and Auditor of the Canal De- partment were constituted Commissioners of the New Capitol. An Advisory Board to the Commis- sioners was appointed July 15, 1875, consisting of F. Law Olmsted, Leopold Eidlitz and Henry Richardson. This board was superseded by the appointment of architects in 1876. An Act passed March 30, 1883, authorized the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint an officer to be known as the Commissioner of the New Capitol, who shall have charge of the work of

constructing and finishing the building. He is authorized to employ labor, purchase material and make contracts, which, in all cases, must be awarded to the lowest bona fide responsible bidder. He is required to give a bond for $50,000, condi- tioned for the faithful performance of the duties of his office. His term of office is the same as that of the Governor, from whom he receives his ap- pointment. His salary is $7, 500 per annum. The same Act abolished the office of Superintendent of the Capitol.

A subsequent law of the same year designated the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor and Speaker of the Assembly, ex officio, trustees of the finished parts . of the building, and of several other public buildings of the State at Albany, for which they are to appoint a Superintendent at an annual salary of $3,500.

After the laying of the corner-stone, the work on the building was continued with more or less rapidity, according to the appropriation of funds.

There were times of entire cessation from work for lack of funds. In 1874 no work was done upon it for six months.

It is now occupied by the Senate and Assembly, the Court of Appeal, and nearly all the State Departments.

THE FOUNDATION. -- To receive the foundation, the earth was excavated to an average depth of 15- 43 feet below the surface. Then concrete to the thickness of four feet was first laid down. The material for this was of a nature that indurates with the lapse of time, so that a stone floor now exists which is every year approaching the hard- ness and duration of granite. The sub-base- ment extends down nineteen feet four inches, and contains 935,000 cubic feet of stone. The brick walls are from thirty-two inches to five feet thick, containing between ten and eleven million bricks. The foundation of the main tower is one hundred and ten feet square at the base, tapering to seventy feet square at the basement floor, The sub-base- ment is divided into one hundred and forty-four different appartments, and is utilized for heating, storing and ventilating purposes.

The immense boilers in the sub-basement used for propelling machinery for heating, lighting and ventilating purposes have long been regarded as dangerously located. They were considered liable to explode. They were also the source of other inconveniences. A proposal to remove them to a building adjacent to the Capitol, to be constructed by the State for this purpose, has been agitated for several sessions of the Legislature. The Legisla- ture of 1885 passed an Act providing for the erec- tion of a building for a boiler-house with chimney- stack, having a conduit running from the boiler- house to the Capitol.

The foundation of the boiler-house is seven feet below the sidewalk at the corner of Lafayette and Hawk streets, the walls three feet wide. From floor levels to the water tables the walls are two feet thick, faced with dressed stone. Water tables blue stone, and the wall above faced with pressed brick, tower included. The roof is supported by iron trusses, peaked aud slated. The floor is bricked or flagged. The chimney is 100 feet high, built of hard brick;

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at the base it is fourteen feet square and ten and one- half feet in diameter at the top. The conduit comprises cast-iron tubes in lengths of six feet, clearing six feet in the diameter and an inch thick. Two ten-inch steam-pipes must run through it to connect the Capitol with the battery of boilers. The return pipes are four inches in diameter. For 270 feet the Washington avenue drains are lowered three feet, and for 300 feet the Lafayette street drains are lowered eight feet. There are five boilers, each 150-horse power. The plates are made of the best quality of Otis homo- geneous steel, with tensile strength of 60,000 pounds to the inch of area.

The responsibility of making this construction and the removal was committed to Hon. Charles B. Andrews, Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds in Albany belonging to the State.

The Capitol is now lighted by magnificent elec- tric lights. The Senate, Assembly and Court of Appeals and other larger rooms are illuminated by the incandescent light. The effect of these lights can scarcely be described, but must be seen to be appreciated.

The Capitol is magnificently situated in what will be hereafter known as Capitol square, includ- ing the land between Eagle street on the east, Capitol place on the west, with Washington ave- nue on the north, and State street on the south. The length is 1,034 feet, the width 330, containing in all 7100 84 acres.

Capitol place is 155 feet above the level of the Hudson, and the land slopes to the east 51 feet. State street leads directly up from Broadway to the Capitol.

One of the first impressions of the traveler as he beholds the building is its immense proportions. It occupies 33 acres of land. It is 300 feet from north to south, and 400 feet from east to west. The walls are 108 feet high from the water-table, and are composed of granite, most of it from Hallowell, Maine.

The Central Court is 137 by 92 feet, extending an open space to the sky and admitting much needed light and air. Above the six dormer win- dows that open on the Court that are above the fourth or gallery story, are sculptured the arms of six families more or less distinguished in the history of the State. The Stuyvesant Arms are on the north side, west; Schuyler arms on the north side, middle; the Livingston arms on the north side, east; the Jay arms are on the south side, west; the Clinton arms are on the south side, middle; the Tompkins arms are on the south side, east.

The carvings descriptive of these arms, with the mottoes, are beautifully wrought, and blend with fine effect in the whole entablature on which they appear.

We take the following description of the Capitol from H. P. Phelps' admirably compiled work, " The Albany Hand-book."

The first or ground story, which is nearly on a level with Washington avenue and State street, is devoted to committee rooms and offices elsewhere specified. Ascent to the other stories may be made by elevators, but visitors will generally prefer to walk up one or the other of the grand stair- cases.

THE ASSEMBLY STAIRCASE, on the north side, is of Dorchester freestone of soft drab color; its ascent is easy; its design vigorous and scholarly. The views of it so often seen give a better idea of its majestic proportions then words can do.

THE GOLDEN CORRIDOR. - On arriving upon the second floor by the Assembly Staircase will be seen the Golden Corridor, 140 feet long by 20 wide and about twenty-five feet high, extending along the whole court side of the north center. Seven large windows opening upon this court divide the corridor into bays, twenty feet square. Each bay is flanked by piers, between which arches are turned, and these arches sustain a low and ribless groined vault.

Mr. Montgomery Schuyler says:

"The piers are covered with a damask of red upon umber. The angle moldings are solidly gilded. The crimson wall screen on both sides is overlaid with a simple reticulation of gold lines framing or- naments in yellow. The whole vault is gilded, and upon its ground of gold traversing each face of the vault, is a series of bands of minute ornament in brown, scarlet and deep blue. The method- this close mosaic of minute quantities of crude color-is entirely Oriental in treatment and effect. The varying surfaces of the vaulting, each covered with fretted gold, give a vista, lengthened by the dwindling arches, alive with flashing lights and shimmering shadows. Opening out of the corridor to the right is the room originally intended for the Court of Appeals, but declined by the Judge as un- suitable for their purpose. It is sixty feet square and twenty-five feet high, subdivided into parallel- ograms, one twice the width of the other, by a line of red granite columns carrying with broad, low arches a marble wall. The walls are of sandstone, visible in some places, but covered in most with a decoration in deep red, and with the tall wainscot- ing of oak, which occupy the wall above the dado of sandstone. The ceiling is a superb construction in carved oak, carried on a system of beams dimin- ishing in size from the great girders supported by great braces, and finally closed by oaken panels, profusely carved. The Senate occupied this room previous to the completion of the Senate Chamber, and it has been used for various purposes. At the time of the scare, in relation to the ceiling of the Assembly Chamber, in 1882-83, it was hastily fitted up for the occupation of the Assembly with gallery, etc The members sat there one day and returned to their quarters. When the State Library Build- ing was razed, this room and the Golden Corridor were utilized temporarily for library purposes.

THE ASSEMBLY CHAMBER. - Ascending another flight of the staircase we come to what is, without doubt, the grandest legislative hall in the world- the Assembly Chamber- 84x140 feet by including the galleries, although the chamber proper is but 84 by 85 feet. Four great pillars, 4 feet in diameter, of red granite, sustain the largest groined stone arch in the world, the key-stone being 56 feet from the floor. These pillars, and the arch which springs from them, are the most striking features

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of the room, but it will bear a world of study. While all admit the grandeur of the work, its vastness is also its defect; for as a debating hall it is far from perfect. With the Assembly in perfect order (a condition rarely observed for ten consecu- tive minutes) a good speaker cannot be heard without difficulty, but the Statesman with weak lungs, poor voice, uninteresting manner, or thread- bare subject, is apt to complain bitterly of the acoustics. It had been found necessary, in order to keep the key-stone in place, to weight it very heavily; this extra weight upon the sandstone caused some of the defective stones to crack. Small pieces fell, and there was much apprehension that the building was settling unevenly, and that the tons upon tons of stone in and about the ceiling would some day come down with a crash. A com- mission of experts reported that it was best to take the ceiling down. The architects protested and offered to repair it at their own expense; they were allowed to do so, replaced the defective stones, and all anxiety appears to have subsided.

THE ALLEGORICAL PICTURES. - No one feature of the Capitol has caused more comment than the pictures that occupy the upper portions of the north and south walls of this chamber. They were painted by the late William M. Hunt, one of the greatest of American artists, and possess a melancholy interest from the fact that they are the only work of the kind he ever did. He received for his services fifteen thousand dollars. The space covered by each is fifteen by forty feet. That on the northern wall represents the allegory of Armujd and Ahriman, or the flight of Evil before Good; or, as is more frequently interpreted, The Flight of Night. The Queen of Night is driving before the dawn, charioted on clouds drawn by three plunging horses, one black, one white, one red, without other visible restraint than that of a swarthy guide, who floats at the left of the picture, and whose hand is lightly laid upon the head of the outermost horse. At the right of the goddess, and in deep shade, is the recumbent figure of a sleeping mother with a sleeping child upon her breast. The picture on the southern wall repre- sents the Discoverer standing upright in a boat, dark against a sunset sky. Fortune erect stands behind him trimming the sail with her lifted left hand while her right holds the tiller. The boat is rising to a sea, and is attended by Hope at the prow, with one arm resting on it, and one point- ing forward; Faith, whose face is buried in her arms, and who is floating with the tide: and Science unrolling a chart at the side.

We are told that since Mr. Hunt's melancholy death on the Isle of Shoals, that the fifty-five days devoted by himself and his assistant to the paint- ing of these pictures, by no means represented all the labor bestowed upon them. The Discoverer was first drawn in charcoal in 1857. The Flight of Night had been put on paper ten years earlier, and had been designed simply for an easel picture. After accepting the commission, Mr. Hunt's pre- paratory work in his studio in Boston was of nearly

five months' duration. For the Flight of Night, the heads of the horses, their legs and feet were all freshly painted from life. The Queen was painted from a model. Sleep and the child were painted from life; also the dusky guide. For the other picture, the Discoverer, Hope, Science, and For- tune were painted from life models. The heads, hands, and arms of these figures were also drawn and colored as separate studies. In all, thirty or more careful charcoal drawings and more than twelve pastels were made, besides nineteen com- plete copies in oil-seventeen, twelve by thirty inches, and two, six by eight feet. The work itself had to be done by a specified time, and this in- volved much anxiety. Each morning the artist and his assistant were up to catch from the rising sun a fresh impression to carry to the work upon the Flight of Night. Every evening they watched the waning daylight, and noted the effect of figures and objects against the setting sun, as a study for the Discoverer. Later on in the work, Mr. Hunt obtained from his assistant a solemn promise that if their effort proved a failure, he would paint out both pictures in a single night.

THE SOUTH SIDE CORRIDOR. - The Executive Chambers, or the Governor's rooms, are in the southeast corner on the second, or entrance floor. On the way to this portion of the Capitol, one is struck by two very important differences in con- struction between the southern corridors and the corresponding passages on the north side of the building. These differences consist in the use of colored marbles here for wainscoting, and in the admission of light by windows rising from the top of the wainscot above the level of the eye and sur- rounding the doors leading into the various com- mittee rooms that receive direct light. The effect of the wainscot is of great richness and variety, and it also seems substantial and enduring. The rich- ness and variety of color is truly wonderful, and it contains in low tones more combinations than the most elaborate palettes of a painter could reach in a lifetime. The most prominent tints are shades and hues of red, and these are relieved by num- berless colder tones, grays and browns predom- inating. 'T'he marble has been selected upon a harmonious scale of color, and is put together in simple slabs, the joining edges of which are beveled perpendicularly, and are held in place by a slightly convex string molding and a cap of brownstone, which, where they abut upon doors, are daintily carved into terminal bosses, while the whole rests upon a molded base of brownstone. This wainscot is more pleasing than any combination of tiles could be, but its effect would be entirely thrown away were it not for the means adopted for lighting the corridors through the windows above mentioned.

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Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 102

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1452

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452