The Star-Ledger Archive
COPYRIGHT © The Star-Ledger 1999
Date: 1999/06/25 Friday Page: 023 Section: NEW JERSEY Edition
AS GOOD AS GOLD
It's dome's day, to lawyer's delight
By Tom Hester
Star-Ledger Staff
Before sitting down to business at a Trenton law firm, attorney Joseph Priory and his clients would pause to admire the view from a 10th-floor conference room that overlooks the Statehouse.
Below in all its glory was the picturesque and historic Delaware River, stretching blue and green out of sight to the north. In the distance on the opposite bank was good neighbor Pennsylvania, linked to New Jersey's capital city by busy bridges.
And then there was the dome atop the Statehouse, just a block away. There was no missing it — peeling and rusting, hideous from years of neglect. The paint that remained was a sickly yellow or faded blue.
``Clients would look at it and say, `That is a sad statement on New Jersey,'" Priory recalled yesterday. "I would think: New Jersey is on the upswing. Instead of being a symbol of hope, the dome was a symbol of deterioration and neglect." It was 1994. The situation moved Priory to write Gov. Christie Whitman, urging her to renovate the dome. To help get the project moving, he and his wife, Nancy, started "Dimes for the Dome," a fund- raising effort that enlisted fourth-grade students around the state.
With cake sales, read-a-thons, poster contests and other fund-raisers the children collected $48,000.
Yesterday, Priory stood little-noticed in a crowd during a ceremony in a pocket park across West State Street from the Capitol. With all but a small portion of the scaffolding that had enshrouded the dome during the past two years dismantled, Whitman declared the restoration project complete and thanked him for his help.
The Governor noted "Dimes for the Dome" raised exactly the amount needed to finance the gold leaf that artisans pasted on the renovated dome. A plaque honoring the children's effort will be place in the Statehouse rotunda.
Behind Whitman, the 110-year-old dome shone golden in the sunlight beneath a blazing blue sky and fair-weather clouds.
``It is breathtaking," said Priory. "There is something about the dome that represents unity. There is something uplifting about it. Something that lifts the spirits."
Priory moved to his own practice in Princeton in 1995 but he followed the renovation work as he commuted over the Route 1 bridge from his home in Yardley, Pa. "Now when I drive by, I almost drive off the road, it is so beautiful."
The project involved restoration of the dome's cast iron and copper roof, exterior gilding, stained glass, interior finishes, decorative plaster, and fire-suppression and lighting systems. The interior work, which also included repair of water damage from leaks, is not quite completed; Whitman said it was expected to take a few more weeks.
The butterfly-wing-thin gold leaf was imported from Florence, Italy, cut into 35,000 four-inch squares and pasted to the dome. The entire load of gold weighed only 30 ounces.
While the donations from the children paid for the gold leaf, the overall renovation was financed with public and private funds. It was expected to cost $12.5 million but came in under budget at $9.5 million, said John Whitman, the Governor's husband, who led the private fund-raising effort. About $1.25 million was raised by corporate sponsors, with the single largest donation — $250,000 — coming from Bristol-Myers Squibb.
Constructed in 1792, the Statehouse is the second oldest in continuous use in the nation, behind the one in Annapolis, Md. It houses the Governor's office, the Legislature and state treasury. The original dome was built in 1845 and destroyed by a fire in 1885. The current dome, in the French Academic Classic style, was built in 1889 by Lewis Broome.
``The Statehouse dome is shining again," the Governor declared. "That is important for Trenton. That is important for New Jersey. And that is important for all the people who call this state home."
Top this
• The Statehouse dome was built in 1889 to replace the original, built in 1845 and destroyed by fire in 1885.
• Restoration was estimated to cost $12 million; it ended up costing $9.5 million.
• About $1.25 million was raised for the project from corporate sponsors, and schoolchildren raised $48,000 to pay for the gold leaf covering the dome.
• The thin gold leaf coating, weighing only 30 ounces in all, was applied in 35,000 four-inch squares.