essenger - Vol. 1, No. 2, Page 1 Winter 1992 Conserving the nation's Capitol Bill Allen, Delaware '72, is a doctor without an M.D. or a Ph.D., but he has enough clout that the Congress of the United States takes notice of his activity. A "building doctor," Allen is the architectural historian for the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. His job ranges from helping designers choose paint schemes in one of the Senate office buildings to publishing research on the history of the Capitol. Allen, a native of Seaford, Del., says he was always interested in both history and architecture. "I used to make my parents take me to Old Dover Days and A Day in Old New Castle," he recalls. At Delaware, Allen majored in history and art history, and, after graduation, entered the University of Virginia's graduate program in architectural history. He earned an M.A. in 1974 and accepted a job in the preservation office in Jackson, Miss., later becoming the state's architectural historian. In 1982, Allen joined the office of the architect of the Capitol, whose 2,400 employees manage the Capitol, the Library of Congress, the Congressional Office Buildings, the Botanic Gardens, the Taft Memorial and the Supreme Court Building. In his position, Allen works with a team of interior designers and architects who help in restoration work on the government buildings. "I'm usually one of a team that makes sure that the work conforms to the high standards of preservation (and) shows respect for the existing buildings," he says. Allen advises architects and designers on how to maintain or restore the buildings so that they keep in harmony with the intentions of the original designers. Before he joined the staff, it was architects who mainly solved the historical preservation problems of government buildings, and, unfortunately, Allen says, the buildings suffered. "The architects had not been trained to deal with existing buildings-classical buildings--because courses dealing with historic preservation were not offered by 99 percent of the schools." As a part of the restoration/preservation group, Allen spends time working on interior rooms of the government buildings, which, he says, are remarkably different. The old Supreme Court chambers, located in the oldest part of the Capitol, are "stern, monumental, grave and sober with hardly any ornament at all." But, the wings designed by Thomas U. Walter in the 1850s are a riot of decoration, replete with cast plaster ornaments. One of Allen's first endeavors when he arrived was to change the paint scheme in Congressional office buildings. "When I came nine years ago, the corridors were color-coded, like hospitals, so you had one corridor that was turquoise, another that was a bilious green. This was rather a silly attempt to assist visitors in getting around the building. One of my proudest achievements was to design a classical color scheme for the public corridors in all those buildings." Allen also has restored the historic Senate caucus room in the Russell building--a room in which John F. Kennedy announced his candidacy for President, where the Watergate hearings were held and where the Iran-Contra hearings took place. The ceiling in this room, Allen says, is "one of these really incredible, highly ornate ceilings one would expect to see in Paris, but, in 1947, they put up the newest thing-acoustical tile-and they also highlighted some of the moldings with radiator paint." Allen decided to have the tiles taken down and the room restored as closely as possible to the original intentions of the designer (including a carpet made to echo the pattern in the original marble floor). He also solved the room's acoustical problems. He says it was important not to go for a quick fix. "We thought it through and decided to do things like beef up the fabrics on the windows so that the cloth would absorb some of the sound that reverberates off the marble walls." In addition, Allen is involved with work on the exterior of the Capitol. Although all the buildings are in a classical architectural style, Allen says, "after that, they part wildly. For instance, the Capitol, which was begun in 1793 with the last addition finished in 1962, is the combination of nine different buildings, representing the work of a dozen different architects." The differences in style and the various methods of construction present their own problems. One morning in 1983, Allen went to work, only to be told that about 100 square feet of the Capitol's west front had collapsed. "The problem was that the stone they selected for the original construction was Virginia sandstone, which weather just tears apart," he says. The west front also had been allowed to deteriorate while members of Congress debated whether to restore it or to build an addition on that side. Congress immediately apportioned $47 million for the west front restoration, which took place from 1984-1987. "That was a fascinating project. The first thing we did was to remove about 35 layers of paint. After all the paint came off, we were able to analyze each and every stone on the west front. We ended up removing about 40 percent and replacing it with Indiana limestone." "As the paint came off," Allen says,"we expected to see scars from the fire of 1814 when the British burned the Capitol. I'd been down to the White House where you can not only see that fire's smoke damage but smell it. It's very eerie. "For years and years, we thought the Capitol had been painted to cover the smoke damage of 1814," he says. "Then, I discovered that the Capitol was never painted before 1818, and the only reason it was painted then was to protect the stone from the weather." In addition to restoration projects, Allen says about half his time is spent doing research on the architectural history of the buildings. For this, he often uses documents from the Office of the Architect of the Capitol, which has continuous, uninterrupted records since 1851. "We also have had, since 1851, this philosophy of not throwing anything away," he says. "If I want to know who made the columns of the Capitol dome, I would go to the files and not only find out who made them, but I would find out the names of everyone who bid on those columns." This documentation is an historian's "bread and butter," Allen says. Allen recently completed a research project to determine whether the Capitol dome was designed after the dome on St. Isaac's Cathedral in Leningrad. The project lasted more than two years and resulted in a complete history of the dome, which, once approved by Congress, will be published as an official government document. The construction of the new dome was authorized by Congress on March 3, 1855, he says, because the original, wooden dome appeared too small for the enlarged building. The new cast iron dome was built from a plan that had originally hung on the office wall of the architect of the Capitol, Thomas U. Walter. Allen looked at the original manuscripts from both Walter and the supervising engineer, Captain Montgomery C. Mayes. Allen says, "I was the first person to ever do this, and for good reason. I was the first person who developed the ability to read the handwriting of the supervising engineer!" Not only was Mayes' handwriting illegible, but as a result of a disagreement between Mayes and Walter, "(Mayes) was banished to an island off the coast of Florida. It makes those nighttime soap operas look tame. There was a lot of back-stabbing, and the President and two secretaries of war were involved. This battle between the architect and the engineer lasted from 1857 to 1859." Allen's research also led to the discovery of how the statue atop the dome, an allegorical figure of freedom, was placed there in 1863. This research, which revealed that the statue was put up in five separate pieces, will help future conservation efforts. Allen says, "We're in the process right now of trying to figure out whether the statue should be conserved in place, or if we should take the statue down. One of the side benefits about the dome history is its detail of how the statue was put up. Our engineers are interested because they now know how to take it off. It's one of those things that historians can tell engineers." The next time you visit the nation's Capitol and admire the designs of the stencils on the ceiling or read a book about the architectural history of the Capitol, remember, these are the work of alumnus Bill Allen, building doctor. -Marceline A. Bunzey, Delaware '92M