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SALT LAKE CITY — The sun dipped low on an unseasonably warm October day as men in tailcoats and women in period dresses milled around the rotunda of Utah Capitol, chatting underneath the warm light of the chandeliers and cheerful sashes of red, white and blue.
"I have goosebumps every time I come to work," said Allyson Gamble, executive director of the Capitol Preservation Board, who wore a frilly white dress and wide-brimmed hat.
One hundred years and one day ago, she said, thousands of Utahns flocked to the massive state Capitol to celebrate its dedication.
"We expect this building to be one of which will be a joy as long as it might stand," then-Gov. William Spry said at the dedication in 1916. "And we propose to build it so that it shall stand through time."
On Saturday, lawmakers, workers and local residents celebrated the centennial anniversary of the building's dedication with a gala and exhibit of the building's history.
Two Utah Highway Patrol cars from the 1950s flagged the entrance, lined with American flags.
Hundreds of schoolchildren spent the day exploring the Capitol and its symbols, making geodesic domes out of gumdrops and rubbings from the county medallions on the floor.
Gov. Gary Herbert, in a speech later that night, said he revered the people who had the "vision and fortitude to build this magnificent structure."
"Our charge … is to build upon the foundation they laid for us," Herbert said.
The governor also quoted from the Deseret News' 1916 article about the dedication, which described how the crowd "watched in breathless silence."
It was a "remarkably hype-free" description, Herbert noted, "a little different than some of the politics today.”
Taylor Regen, of Logan, who wandered into the gala as it was getting underway, was also ruminating on the politics of the moment.
"Sometimes people lose faith in our government," Regen said. "But the system we started with is a powerful thing. It's something we can depend upon."
The Capitol's neoclassical architecture and grand rotunda have always reminded her of that belief, she said.
Completed two decades after Utah became the 45th state in the U.S., the Capitol took 3 ½ years to build at a cost of $2.7 million — approximately $240,000 over budget.
At the time, architects included such modern features as elevators and electric lighting in the plans.
Over time, new artwork was added to the halls and buildings were constructed on the grounds. In 2008, workers completed a $250 million renovation project to earthquake-proof the building and restore some of the public spaces to their original appearance.
Much of the building is still original.
The 26-foot solid marble columns that hold up the rotunda, for example, were carved out of stone imported from Georgia by train.
"There's not a lathe left in the U.S. that can do that today," Gamble said, appreciatively.
She said she hopes the building inspires children for generations to come to understand "that they, too, can come to this Capitol at any time," she said. "Because this is the people's house."
