Academic, research librarians reach new heights on rare State House tour

VIEW FROM THE TOP - Members of the Consortium of Rhode Island Academic & Research Libraries got a rare tour of the State House dome recently. Tom Evans, state librarian, right, led the climb up a 200-tread spiral staircase. Next to him in print dress is Rosie Hopper, president of the group and librarian at Johnson & Wales University. PHOTOS: Brian C. Jones, R.I. Library Report

     
By Brian C. Jones
Rhode Island Library Report

           PROVIDENCE – Librarians, who guide the rest of us to literary heights, were themselves recently led on a daunting climb – to the lofty lair of no less a legend than the Independent Man.
      In other words, they climbed up the Rhode Island State House dome, a height – measured in Ocean State terms - of 235 feet above sea level.
      It’s a trip that few Rhode Islanders get to make. Unlike regular State House tours, this one is infrequent and involves special advance arrangements.
      Fortunately for members of the Consortium of Rhode Island Academic and Research Libraries, their numbers include Tom Evans, the state librarian.             

   
    After a CRIARL meeting Sept. 28, held in the cavernous Senate Lounge, Evans donned a New England Patriots baseball cap, grabbed a powerful flashlight, and with an assistant, took  the librarians to the third floor of the State House to start the tour.

UP THERE - Tom Evans points tour destination.

SPIRAL STAIRWAY in the State House dome.

        Evans unlocked a hidden-in-plain-sight doorway, revealing a stairway that might give even Jack-of-the-Beanstalk  second thoughts.
      It’s the spiral kind, with metal treads winding around and around and around a central pole. It has 200 steps and is mischievously steep, rising 173 feet through a dimly-lighted brick-walled chamber that serves as the backstage for the Capitol dome.
      The stairway has a practical purpose, to provide access for maintenance workers, including those who operate a winch that lowers the huge rotunda chandelier.  (The librarians were too polite – or perhaps too winded – to ask Evans how many state workers it takes to change a chandelier light bulb).
     

LOOKING DOWN at the chandelier and the State House rotunda.

      The trip was not made in one continuous climb, but stopped at several levels, each of which featured a doorway leading to outside walkways, and offering panoramas viewed normally only by seagulls, hawks and downtown window washers.
      The view improved at each stop, and the librarians were treated to new  perspectives, for example, of the roof of the Providence Place mall, and to west, the glory of another famous Rhode Island landmark, the mountainous Central Landfill in Johnston.

     

STOP at first level on dome tour.

SEAGULL'S VIEW of Providence Place roof. Click to enlarge.

CENTRAL LANDFILL is said to be on horizon. Click to enlarge.

STILL SOME more climbing to do. A lower level view of the dome structure.

The climb concluded when Evans opened a large circular hatch, which opens into the mini-dome that is the perch of the Independent Man, the 11-foot-high gold leaf statue that embodies the ornery spirit of  residents of the first colony to declare independence and the last to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
      But even at this level, the visitors still weren’t on an even footing with the Big Guy who was actually perched above them, atop the mini-dome and giving the State House its final measurement – 313 feet above mean high water.
      Also, the statue was largely out of view - only the tip of its spear could be seen from the walkway.



     

ALMOST THERE - Reaching final level. Click to enlarge.

THE TOUR reaches its final stage.

THE TOP HATCH is pushed open.

ONLY THE TIP of I-Man's spear visible at climb's end.

        By now, rain had settled in, and the librarians were ready to return to their own ivy towers – CRIARL members include college and university libraries, along with institutions such as the Providence Athenaeum and the Newport Historical Society.
      The descent proved no less daunting, with the group’s members carefully picking their way down, single-file, one step at a time, flashlights still needed in darker spots, until they reached the secret door and the safety of the polished marble of the third floor.
     

GOING DOWN is daunting,too.

BACK where tour started.

        Hikers seemed generally pleased with the tour, although a few, who said they bicycle or otherwise faithfully exercise, were chagrined at feeling a little wobbly, due to little-used muscles suddenly having been pressed into service.
      Most elected to take the elevator the rest of the way down to the  State House’s ground floor (78 feet above sea level).
     

GROUND VIEW of State House after librarians' dome tour.