Rep. Stephen Canessa, D-New Bedford, was forced to do his spring cleaning early this year.
In January, a water coil burst on the fourth floor of the Statehouse and left Canessa with a flooded mess, displacing his staff for a few months.
“There was paint coming off the ceiling and water running down the walls,” said Canessa. “Equipment, files, and the carpet got ruined. Basically, everything needed to be ripped up and fixed.”
The flood was not an isolated incident. The deteriorating condition of the state’s roads, bridges and other infrastructures are echoed in the crumbling conditions under the golden dome, the state’s symbolic structure of government.
Last winter, a leak in the House chamber damaged one of the five murals behind the speaker’s podium. The painting by Albert Herter, showing the Puritans arrival in 1630, will take two and a half years to restore.
The wood paneling in the Senate chamber is pulling off the wall; mold has been reported in a ventilation system. Gov. Deval Patrick has spoken about fraying wires and mice in his quarter.
During the State of the State speech in 2005, a light fixture fell from the ceiling in the House chamber. The light landed on Rep. Jennifer Flanagan’s, D-Leominster, seat while she was standing during the address.
Those charged with maintaining the 209 year-old building say it is essentially sound. But they concede it needs work.
“There are a lot of places that have water leaks, where the plaster’s falling, but it’s not a nightmare,” said Patrick Reed, the superintendent of the Bureau of State Office Buildings. “It’s an old, old building.”
Reed says the most pressing issues under the dome include replacing the roof and the elevators, which he says are near the end of their useful life.
Last year, approximately 7,000 requests were filed with the bureau ranging from changing light bulbs to ceiling leaks to pest control.
The Statehouse is the second home of Massachusetts government. After the American Revolution, state leaders wanted a capitol to replace the small structure located near Boston’s Downtown Crossing. They hired the famed architect Charles Bullfinch to design the building, which was completed in January 1798.
An addition to the back of the new Statehouse was finished in 1895. The most recent additions, the two white marble wings added to the east and west of the original structure, opened in 1917.
Leaks have long been a problem on Beacon Hill. Paul Revere and sons coppered the Statehouse dome to prevent water damage in 1802. Less than 70 years later, officials paid $3,000 to cover the dome with gold leaf. Officials shelled out 10 times that amount to redo it in 1997.
An extensive renovation of exterior walls and windows was completed in the fall of 2002. The last interior renovation was 25 years ago.
The bureau received $14 million from the Legislature this year for repairs and maintenance at the Statehouse and other state’s office buildings. The funding hasn’t been increased since 2005. Reed says it only goes so far.
“We’ve had to cut services because it saves money,” he said. “Our priorities and our needs may not be as important as all the other needs across the state.”
Senate President Therese Murray has suggested one solution might be donations from outside sources. During this year’s budget debate she told colleagues there was “significant private interest” in restoring the building.
“The problems impact everyone because we all work in the building, so we all at one time or another have been affected,” Murray said in a statement this week. “The challenge is restoring and preserving a building that is hundreds of years of old, while creating a realistic work environment for a 21st century seat of government.”
A Bureau of State Office Building study, due by the end of the year, will offer suggestions on updating the Statehouse. Vincent Civigliano, the bureau’s deputy superintendent for planning and engineering, said repairs are likely to take years.
“It will be a multi-year type of deal, not just a big project,” he said. “We have good feelings about the future of how the Statehouse will be upgraded. As far as the budget, I think we’ll just take it year to year.”
