INDEX:
January 4, 1930, The [Montreal] Gazette. Page 1, Column 2,
Fire Causes Slight Damage in U. S. Capitol, By Canadian Press (
The "Canadian Press" must be "owned" by the "Associated Press" since this article quotes liberally whole paragraphs from the AP's work of the same date.)
January 4, 1930, New York Times, Page 1,
Fire Menaces the Capitol But is Quickly Subdued, Historic Documents Saved, Flames Light Up Dome, Start in Decorator's Studio Under Roof in the West Wing. Jump to Document Room, Artist, Found Stupefied in Smoke, Tells Incoherent Story of What He Saw. Throngs Watch Spectacle. Damage Put at $3,000---Blaze Comes Ten Days After Executive Offices Fire.
January 4, 1930, St Petersburg Times, Page 1, Column 8,
Fire Threatens Capitol Building, Flames Soar Toward Dome of Structure, Artist Overcome by Smoke; Valuable Papers of House Damaged by Water.
January 4, 1930, New York Evening Post, Page 1, Column 4,
Officials Probe Fire at Capitol Damage Scant. Carl Moberly, Artist Saved From Smoke, Expected to Aid Solution. NO DELAY IN SESSION OF CONGRESS TO RESULT. Valuable Documents Are Found Unharmed — Third Blaze Since Last August.
January 4, 1930, Binghamton [NY] Press, Page 1, Column 8,
Artist, Former Police Officer Are Quizzed; Former Overcome by Smoke From Fire, Which Started in His Studio; Damage is Only $3,000; Spoiled Records Principally Copies; Cigarette Seen as Possible Cause.
January 4, 1930, The Reading [Penn.] Eagle, Page 1, Column 2,
Loss in U. S. Capitol Night Fire Only $3,000. Out in 45 Minutes After Spectacular Blaze At Side of Dome Lights Up Sky. Capitol Painter Unable To Explain Fire Start,
January 4, 1930, Tyrone [Penn.] Daily Herald / U.P., Page 1, Column 8,
Documents and Oil Paintings Are Destroyed. Government To Investigate Cause of Blaze, Estimated Damage $7,000.
January 4, 1930, Brooklyn Daily Eagle / AP, Page 1, Column 1,
Capitol Artist Denies Cigaret Cause of Blaze. Moberly Questioned by Architect Says Pail of Oil-Soaked Waste May Have Ignited—Damage Said to Exceed $3,000.
January 4, 1930, The Medina [NY] Daily Journal, Page 1, Columns 7 & 8,
Capitol at Washington Damaged by Fire Last Evening, Blaze Raged For 45 Minutes and Flames Shot Above Dome.
January 4, 1930, The Titusville Herald, Page 1, Column 1,
Twenty Fire Companies Quickly Respond and Confine Blaze To Document Room, By Associated Press
January 5, 1930, New York Times, Page 1,
Blaze in Capitol Remains Unsolved, Architect Reports Cigarette or Spontaneous Combustion as the Probable Cause. Artist Tells His Story. Denies Smoking as Does Friend Who Found Him Asleep and Tried to Put Out Fire.
January 5, 1930, The Huntsville Daily News / AP, Section 2, Page 3, Column 5,
Flames Lick At Capital Dome, Flames Lick at Capitol Dome, Grand Old Building Was Endangered But Damage Was Slight.
January 5 1930, The Brooklyn Eagle, Page A2,
Rum In Capitol Fire, Artist Admits He Took 2 Drinks Few Hours Before Studio Blaze—Prober Says Various Versions Don't Jibe—-Will Continue Inquiry.
January 5, 1930, [Rochester] Democrat Chronicle, Page 1, Column 1,
Fire Cause at Capitol Not Found, Spontaneous Combustion or Careless. Smoker Thought Most Likely Source, Artist Admits Drinking, But Denies He Was Drunk; Friend Made Futile Effort To Put Out Blaze.
January 13, 1930, Time Magazine, "
The Congress: Fire No. 2."
THE CONGRESS: Fire No. 2
David Lynn in 1923
David Lynn (November 10, 1873 in Wheeling, West Virginia – May 25, 1961 in Washington D.C.) was an American
architect and honorary member of the
American Institute of Architects.
Wikipedia calls David Lynn "an American Architect" although
the government tells us differently:
David Lynn was appointed Architect of the Capitol in 1923 by President Calvin Coolidge to fill the vacancy caused by Elliott Woods’s death. Like his predecessor, Lynn was not an architect but had worked his way up through the ranks to become the agency’s number one assistant at the time of his predecessor’s death.
January 4, 1930, New York Times, Page 1,
Fire Menaces the Capitol But is Quickly Subdued, Historic Documents Saved, Flames Light Up Dome, Start in Decorator's Studio Under Roof in the West Wing. Jump to Document Room, Artist, Found Stupefied in Smoke, Tells Incoherent Story of What He Saw. Throngs Watch Spectacle. Damage Put at $3,000---Blaze Comes Ten Days After Executive Offices Fire.
Washington, Jan. 3.---Fire tonight damaged the Capitol and for a time threatened the historic structure with the most serious danger it has faced since British soldiers set fire to both wings in 1814.
Tonight's fire came just ten days after the Christmas Eve fire which destroyed the office wing of the White House, where, by coincidence, many surplus documents were stored in attic stories under the roof of the White House.
"This is more than a coincidence!" exclaimed Senator Vandenberg of Michigan, arriving at the Capitol from a dinner table which he had deserted.
Officials at the Capitol felt certain, however, that the fire was not incendiary, but was probably caused by a smoldering butt of a cigar or cigarette.
David Lynn, architect of the Capitol, said tonight that this was the first serious fire in the Capitol in thirty years,
the last having been one in 1900 which seriously damaged the roof and gutted the chamber of the Supreme Court. There have been a few minor fires, none causing serious damage.
Five Alarms Are Sounded.
The first alarm, sounded at 6:45 P. M., was followed by four others. The fire men who sped to Capitol Hill, accompanied by a large part of the city's population, had the blaze under control in about half an hour, although late this evening smoke still swirled around the electrically lighted dome.
The fire started in
what is known as the 'model' room immediately adjoining the supplemental or reserve document room on the fourth floor, in that part of the main building proper on the west side, just south of and adjacent to the main rotunda and dome and immediately under the roof. A sheet of flame and a cloud of smoke burst through the roof to apprise the citizens, with the fire in the White House office building still fresh in their minds, that another blaze was menacing a government building.
Sight Was Spectacular.
Although the sight was a spectacular one, with firemen swarming over and through the building, on which they played searchlights, and running ladders and hose lines to every window, it was estimated tonight that the actual damage was only $3,000. While the flames spread from
the "model" room into the reserve document room, they were brought under control before much damage was done in the latter place. The chief damage, it is believed, will be found to have been caused by water.
Some damage was done by water to the rooms of the House Committee on Banking and Currency on the third floor and also to some of the offices of the Supreme Court.
When the first Capitol policemen entered the 'model' room they found Charles Moberly, an artist, lying there apparently overcome by smoke. He is attached to the staff of Mr. Lynn and had been employed in retouching frescoes in the Senate wing and portraits and other paintings which had been taken from various parts of the Capitol to
the so-called 'model' room for restoration.
Tells Incoherent Story.
Mr. Lynn said
he assumed that Mr. Moberly had been smoking and that a smoldering cigar or cigarette might have been the cause of the fire. Moberly was unable, after being rescued, to tell a coherent story of what occurred.
Moberly told
Lieut. Commander Calber, the House physician, who attended him in the office of Representative Garner of Texas, that he had gone from the Senate end of the Capitol
to the document room, which he used as a studio. As he sat down he suddenly saw flames all around him. The next thing he knew he was in Representative Garner's office, two floors below.
Moberly talked incoherently as a result, according to Fire Department officials, of the smoke he had inhaled. He insisted he had not been smoking and had not gone to sleep and that he could not tell what happened before he realized that the room was in flames. At first he said he never smoked cigarettes, only cigars. Then he said he did not smoke at all. The physician said it would be futile to ask him questions until he had fully recovered from his experience.
Mr. Lynn said it was not usual for Moberly to work at night unless he had a rush job.
"I don't know if he was working," he added. "He had no rush job that I know of."
The architect said he would start an investigation as to the origin of the fire tomorrow morning. An inquiry by Congress as to the cause of the blaze also may be undertaken.
Moberly, now chief decorator, has been a decorator at the Capitol for twenty years. He is 61 years old.
Fears Loss of Paintings.
Mr. Lynn feared that valuable paintings, supposed to have been in
the "model" room, were destroyed. These included portraits of former Secretaries of War and State and Justices of the Court of Claims.
John Heinberger, a Capitol policeman, stationed outside the building on the eastern front, seeing smoke pouring from the upper story, ran into the building and upstairs, where he was joined by John L. Bass, another Capitol policeman. At that time they thought the fire was in the document room. Continuing upstairs, they entered the reserve document room, immediately under the roof, and passed through it to the model room.
Entering the "model" room, they found the flames there and Moberly. They dragged him downstairs and turned him over to William G. Hatcher of Mr. Garner's secretarial staff and Ralph G. Bray of Mission, Texas, a friend of Mr. Garner. They helped to revive Moberly.
Meanwhile the grounds east of the Capitol had filled with a throng such as turns out for an inauguration, and practically all the fire-fighting machinery of the city was in action, under command of Chief George S. Watson.
Valuable Papers Endangered.
The "model" room is separated from the reserve document room by a partition only a quarter of an inch thick and the flames soon licked through this and spread to the documents on the shelving at the end of the room nearest the studio room, in which there were oils and paints, as well as a model of the Capitol Building and valuable portraits.
The reserve document room, in which there are stored millions of copies of Congressional documents, some of them dating back many decades, is a commodious place, in which the danger of fire spreading is great, once it is started.
The documents were not in steel cases but were stacked on long rows of shelves. That the fire did not do tremendous damage
is considered almost a miracle.
Most of the documents stored there are printed ones, and William Tyler Page, clerk of the House, said they were not of great historical value. There were in the room also some overflow documents from the Senate library and the main document room, which were of great value, some of them running back to the time of George Washington. These were not reached by the fire.
Lights Still Burn in Dome.
Flames pouring from the top of the Capitol, visible from Pennsylvania Avenue and other thoroughfares leading toward the building, drew thousands of spectators to the scene. Almost every article of fire apparatus in the city was massed in the east plaza, where the great quadrennial inagural pageants occur, and which tonight was as light as day under the glare of great flood lights which were used by the firemen to illuminate the building. The dome itself was still lighted by the battery of searchlights which illuminate it every night.
Billows of smoke poured from the roof of the building and made the conflagration appear even more serious than it actually was, so far as the apparent extent of the damage is concerned. Firemen ran long ladders up to the roof of the building and carried hose lines there so as to be able to drench the model room with water.
Precautions Urged Repeatedly
The fire called attention once more to the haphazard manner in which some of the most precious documents in the possession of the government are kept, for it was pointed out that had fire broken out in the exactly corresponding space on the Senate side of the building, precious papers dating back a century might have been destroyed. Original messages of the Presidents since Washington and other documents, some of them most valuable government papers, would have been threatened with destruction. These priceless Senate documents are packed away in the Senate "attic" in flimsy tin boxes.
Mr. Lynn and his immediate predecessor in office, the late Elliot Woods, have repeatedly recommended that Congress make provision for modern steel filing cases and other fireproof equipment in which to place these overflow documents and reduce the fire hazard, which is at all times present in that portion of the Capitol building.
Mr. Lynn was unable to state definitely tonight exactly what, and how many, portraits were in
the model room or studio to be retouched by the artist at the time the fire started. He said that there had been there recently eight to ten portraits of former Secretaries of State and War, which had been sent from the State, War and Navy Building, and also some portraits of justices of the Court of Claims. It is definitely known that a portrait of Mr. Lynn was destroyed.
A plaster cast model of the Capitol, ten or twelve feet long, an exact duplicate of the one now on exhibition at the Spanish exposition at Seville, Spain, was practically destroyed.
The reserve document room itself was damaged very little. Some of the documents were thrown down on the floor and trampled by firemen or damaged by water. The skylight above the studio was shattered, not a pane of glass remaining in it.
Charred beams around the sides of the studio bore witness to the fierceness of the fire. Heat could be felt through the Capitol for some time after the blaze was under control, and the whole building had the sickening smell of burnt and water-soaked wood long afterward.
The marble floors of the main rotunda were running with water and streams formed in various small passageways. The folding doors that gave entrance to the eastern side of the rotunda had been arranged so that many lines of hose could be run in on that floor.
Broken glass from doors was scattered around the main entrance to the rotunda.
Hose lines wriggled across the broad Capitol plaza like so many worms, water spurting from the connections of many of these to wet the plaza like a downpour of rain.
Firemen were allowed to move free and unhampered in the plaza, as the crowd was kept back by police squads which rushed to the Capitol immediately after the alarm was sounded. Automobiles were detoured around the Capitol grounds in each direction and were not permitted to go near the building.
Hoover Gets Details by Phone.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 (AP).---President Hoover, whose personal experience with fires was refreshed last week by the blaze in his own offices at the White House, took an especial interest in the spectacle tonight at the Capitol.
He instructed one of the White House aides to get the details. The telephone operator at the Capitol, while being besieged with calls from Senators and Representatives,
connected the White House with the office of Representative Garner of Texas. There David Lynn, the Capitol architect, gave the details for relay to Mr. Hoover.
Title: View of the U.S. Capitol during the fire which destroyed the studio of Artist Chas. Moberly & considerably damaged the House Document Room - fire engines with ladders going up the side of the Capitol.
Date Created/Published: 1930 Jan. 4. Source:
Library of Congress.
January 4, 1930, St Petersburg Times, Page 1, Column 8,
Fire Threatens Capitol Building, Flames Soar Toward Dome of Structure, Artist Overcome by Smoke; Valuable Papers of House Damaged by Water.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3, AP).--Fire blazed for more than thirty minutes tonight about the dome of the Capitol of the United States.
Originating in the room of a Capitol artist, it damaged the documents of the house and sent flames shooting toward the great figure of liberty on its top while thousands within the great parkways stood by in fear that the historical building would be destroyed.
More than twenty fire companies were called upon to fight the stubborn blaze which at first smouldered beneath the roof and then broke through to shoot shafts of reddish hue into the air. The blaze could be plainly seen all along Pennsylvania avenue and from the White House itself, where a Christmas eve blaze burned President Hoover's executive offices.
Artist Almost Suffocated.
Carl Moberly, the artist, was found almost suffocated and was removed to an office of the building. The Capitol officials immediately began an investigation to determine whether a carelessly tossed cigarette might have caused all of the damage.
In order to reach Moberly's room, firemen first battered through a locked revolving door at the east entrance of the rotunda through which thousands of tourists pass each year.
Outside on the spacious east plaza of the Capitol dozens of fire engines, hook and ladder companies, fire pumpers, fire supply cars, first aid wagons and police reserve patrol wagons were parked.
Beyond this hastily formed battery of fire fighting and first aid apparatus, district and Capitol police held back thousands of spectators who had been attracted to the Capitol.
Here and there on the granite floorway over which those prominent in public life for more than a century as well as millions of ordinary American citizens have walked, were pools of water.
The fire first was discovered by members of the Capitol building police.
Attaches of the Capitol said that if the fire had reached certain portions of the document room, valuable papers dating back to the time of George Washington would have been destroyed in addition to those of recent years which did suffer. The extent of the damage could not be determined at first. Moberly had been in his office for some time before the fire was discovered. Whether he had had friends with him was unknown. He was alone when rescued.
Dr. George W. Calver, a naval physician assigned to duty at the house of representatives, treated Moberly. He said the artist had been overcome with smoke but he felt he would recover quickly. He added, however, that if he had not been rescued at the time that he was, an alarming condition might have resulted.
Loss Believed Slight
Dr. Calver said Moberly was bleeding slightly on the left side of his face when found. Apparently, he asserted, the wound was only flesh deep and not serious.
Damage caused by the fire at the Capitol was estimated by David Lynn, Capitol architect, to have totaled
only $3,000.
He added the damage was done almost entire to the skylight, plastering and water damage to documents. Most of the documents, he said, were undamaged since they had been raised off the floor above the level reached by the water.
Lynn said the fire apparently started in the artist's working room but that he could not assign cause for the fire until after a complete examination.
Eight of ten portraits of judges of the court of claims, which had been placed in the model room for retouching, also were destroyed.
The architect said firemen had found the electric wiring in the room to be in good condition and did not believe the fire originated from that source.
Moberly is 61 years old. His home is at Mount Ida, Va., which is between Washington, D.C., and Alexandria, Va.
Moberly was questioned as the decorator lay on the couch in Representative Garner's private room but no details were learned as to the cause of the fire at first. However a fireman came out of the room and said the artist had told him he had awakened and found the place afire, and the next thing he knew had found himself in Mr. Garner's office.
A large number of members of the house visited their offices as soon as they learned of the conflagration. Representative McDuffie found the only damage in his room had been caused by water.
Water seeped down into the private chambers of members of the supreme court, but these doors were so tightly locked that firemen were unable to gain entrance to determine the damage.
In the artist's room there were a number of paintings
just completed of justices of the court of claims.
These with much other material in the document and artist rooms were destroyed.
However, the original model of the Capitol usually there was not in the artist's room. It is now on exhibition in Seville, Spain.
Firemen were busy long after the fire had been extinguished getting rid of the water which had seeped down onto all four floors of the main structure.
Shortly after 8 o'clock the firemen were still pumping water into the building but in greatly reduced quantities. Only a few of the 27 fire companies that answered the alarm remained on the scene, and the huge crowd was rapidly dispersing.
Despite efforts to prevent it, water had seeped through into the rotunda of the building, but had been prevented from reaching either the chambers of the senate or the house of representatives at the extreme ends of each wing.
Oils, paints and easels in the artist's room had permitted the blaze to spread quickly and it soon got into the supplementary document room nearby.
A
hasty survey under the flashlights of firemen showed that a number of documents had been damaged by water. These mostly were copies of bills, resolutions and committee reports and apparently were not a total loss, since it was believed they easily could be read after drying out.
Texan in Building
One of the few persons in the section of the building in which the fire occurred was Ralph G. Bray, editor of the Texas Mission Times. He was in the office of Representative Garner at work when he first smelled smoke. As he rose from the desk, he said he heard the sirens of the first of the fire equipment arriving on the plaza.
Running into the corridor that leads to the historic Statuary hall, once the chamber of the house of representatives in the early days of the Union, and now set aside for the statues of the leading sons of each of the 48 states,
he said he found firemen entering through the rotunda archway with hose.
At first, he explained, the firemen were unable to locate the little doorway leading into the winding staircase to the fourth floor.
The doorway is the first to the right leading off Statuary hall and is inconspicuous compared with the pretentious rosewood doors leading into the office of Mr. Garner on the left and the private office of Speaker Longworth on the right.
It was only a moment, however, he added, before the firemen discovered the small entrance and began climbing with the hose up the iron steps of the winding stairs.
The heavy walls of the document room, erected years ago of heavy masonry and said to be nearly three feet thick, were believed to have aided firemen materially in preventing the blaze from spreading throughout the Capitol.
Lynn, the Capitol architect, said that the structural damage would not amount to very much but that he understood valuable paintings and pictures were being renovated by Moberly.
He said that some of the paintings belonged to the court of claims and others to the war department and possibly a few to the navy department, and these apparently had been destroyed.
A model of the White House by E. Garrettee was in the studio and was practically demolished.
Lynn told the fire authorities he thought the fire fighters had done exceptionally good work in confining the fire to the studio and to a part of the document room.
Offices Damaged by Water
Some of the water from the hose was leaking into the office of Representative McDuffie, and some other water was leaking into the office of Chairman Leavitt of the House Indian affairs committee.
The office of Chairman McFadden of the house banking and currency committee also was damaged slightly by water.
The firemen began cleaning up the debris as soon as possible and
carried out in buckets pieces of old pictures and books, documents and studio equipment.
The floor of the fire-swept studio was covered with broken glass from the skylight.
One reason advanced by Fire Chief Watson for the difficulty in ascertaining the location of the fire was an old heating system used in the capitol which had ventilators. Regions far from the studio had smoke in them before the offices adjacent to the studio were penetrated.
The floor of the studio is about three feet higher than the floor of the document room. The entire roof of the studio was a skylight. At one end of the studio stood the model of the White House on a dais. All around the walls were bookcases and places where paintings had rested.
Only the charred remnants of a chair and desk remained and here and there were scattered about models of agricultural [
sic...he means...architectural] decorations.
Firemen reported that the stand pipes in the document room failed to function for lack of pressure. Because of this they had to depend solely on the hose lines, and it was with great difficulty that these were finally carried up the exterior of the building and through the tiny corridors into the room.
The blaze brought fire companies flying from surrounding communities to supplement the efforts of the Washington fire fighters, companies from Boulevard Heights, Geater Capitol Heights and Capitol Heights arriving on the scene shortly after the blaze was seen enshrouding the dome of the Capitol.
It was in 1814 that the original Capitol building of the United States, the corner stone of which was laid by George Washington, was burned by British troops. After the rebuilding of the Capitol, wings were added, and later an extension of the wings was begun. The wings were not finally completed, however, until 1858.
The great dome, which has been pictured the world over as symbolical in part of the government of the United States, was not completed until the close of the Civil war. It is more than 287 feet in height.
Some idea of the expansion of the building is given in a comparison of costs. As the Capitol stood in 1827 its cost was quoted as $2,433,844. The total cost as quoted upon its final completion was approximately $16,000,000 with the value of the grounds quoted at about $10,000,000.
January 4, 1930, New York Evening Post, Page 1, Column 4,
Officials Probe Fire at Capitol Damage Scant. Carl Moberly, Artist Saved From Smoke, Expected to Aid Solution. No Delay in Session of Congress to Result. Valuable Documents Are Found Unharmed — Third Blaze Since Last August.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 (AP).—The tongues of red flame that leaped through the roof of the south west wing of the Capitol last night and licked at the side of the huge white dome had left only a small blackened spot on the side of the building today.
The vividness of the flame, the shrieking sirens of fire apparatus, first thoughts that century-old records, possibly the structure itself, might be endangered, had faded this morning and fast were be coming a part of the bulging history of Capitol Hill.
Officials were more concerned over the blaze than the damage wrought. They said the loss would amount to about $3,000, that the fire in no way would interfere with the convening of Congress Monday, following the holiday recess, and that such documents and papers as were charred or water-soaked were not a part of the permanent files.
The blaze, far more spectacular than that which destroyed part of the Executive office of the White House Christmas eve, originated in a room occupied by Carl Moberly, an artist who has decorated many of the corridors in the Senate and House wings.
Moberly was rescued in a partly suffocated condition. First aid was administered in the office of Representative John Garner of Texas, the House Democratic leader, and the artist was later taken to a hospital.
Careful Inquiry Planned.
Today Mr. Moberly had practically recovered and from him Capitol officials hope to obtain some light on the cause of the fire. Several Capitol employees suggested the possibility that a cigarette or a cigar started the blaze. David S. Lynn, the Capitol architect, and Joseph G. Rodgers, the House sergeant at arms, reiterated this morning that they proposed to investigate carefully into the cause. Both were at the Capitol last night before the flames were extinguished and obtained all information then available.
The fire was discovered at 7 P. M. Capitol police turned in the alarm. Firemen on apparatus which had to travel over Pennsylvania Avenue were spurred forward by the sight of the flames, leaping and glowing bright above the hundreds of electric lights that illuminate the building.
Reaching the Capitol a multitude of difficulties delayed the firemen. Most of the doors were locked. Some companies threw ladders against the structure to fight inwards, while others smashed the thick plate glass in the revolving door opening from the rotunda to the east plaza---the entrance through which thousands of tourists pass annually.
People Flock to Capitol
As firemen strove to reach the flames thousands of Washingtonians swarmed
Continued on Page Eleven.
to Capitol Hill. Many in the city had missed the White House fire and last night, as word spread over the city that the Capitol was burning, men, women and children hastened to the scene.
Police reserves were rushed to "the Hill" to assist the hastily mobility Capitol police force in holding back the crowd that surged over the broad east plaza. On the west side still another crowd gathered on the sloping hill.
Of the thousands obtaining information about the fire over the telephone was President Hoover. He instructed White House aids to obtain all information and they immediately had a White House phone connected with the office of Representative Garner. After Firemen had smashed the east rotunda door, they carried hose lines through the rotunda, the walls of which are decorated with many valuable oil paintings of events of early American history.
Other lines of hose were carried up the stairway opening just to the north of Statuary Hall.
Later it was ascertained that no damage from water or smoke had resulted in either the hall or the rotunda, and within a short time after the blaze was out charwomen had swabbed up the water pools on the floor.
Valuable Records Unhurt
The artist's room opened off a document room used to store principally bills, resolutions and committee reports. Some damage to these resulted but practically all were copies. More valuable records nearby were not marred.
In Moberly's room, some portraits of Justices of Federal courts suffered from the water and smoke.
Firemen had the blaze under control in slightly more than ten minutes after they put their first hose in action.
The fire was out within forty-five minutes from the first alarm.
Immediately under the artist's room in the office of Representative John McDuffie of Alabama, the Assistant House Democratic leader, while under McDuffie's office is the private office of Speaker Longworth. Representative Garner's office is opposite that of the Speaker's, while several Justices of the Supreme Court, as well as the chairmen of the House Banking and Indian Affairs Committees, have rooms in that section of the building.
Moberly is sixty-one years old. He has been a decorator at the Capitol for nearly thirty years. His home is at Mount Ida, Va. He came to Washington from Frederick, Md.
The fire last night was the third since August. The other two were blazing trash boxes ignited by carelessly tossed cigarettes.
Bert W. Kennedy, the doorkeeper of the House, said today he had counted ten fires during his many years of service at the Capitol. Last night, however, was the first time in six years the city fire department has been called upon.
January 4, 1930, Binghamton [NY] Press, Page 1, Column 8,
Artist, Former Police Officer Are Quizzed; Former Overcome by Smoke From Fire, Which Started in His Studio; Damage is Only $3,000; Spoiled Records Principally Copies; Cigarette Seen as Possible Cause.
Washington, Jan. 4—.(Associated Press) —Preliminary investigation today left as an open question the cause of the fire which last night sent flames leaping around the dome of the Capitol and threw Washington into a furor of excitement.
With his inquiry incomplete, David S. Lynn, architect in charge of public buildings, said, all of the information he had been able to obtain had not convinced him as to the origin of the blaze.
"The fire was caused either by spontaneous combustion or somebody smoking in the artists' studio." Lynn said, after questioning Charles Moberly, the artist, and Samuel Hall, a former Capitol policeman, who was with Moberly when the blaze started.
Lynn said Moberly had told him that he was not smoking, but was a sleep with his head on his desk in the model room. Hall was sitting in a chair reading a newspaper, the architect, said. He added that Hall discovered the fire and undertook to put it out with a fire extinguisher obtained from a nearby room.
Questioned as to whether Moberly had been drinking, Lynn said the artist told him he had had two drinks about 12:30 p. m. yesterday. He also said Moberly told him that those were his last drinks, and it was asserted that the artist had worked throughout the afternoon retouching, the decorations in the Senate corridors.
There was no explanation of Hall's presence in the artist's quarters. He had not been employed at the Capitol for many years.
The stories of the two men as reconstructed today for Mr. Lynn, left many apparent gaps which he later will undertake to fill in before making his report to Speaker Longworth on the origin, of the blaze and the extent of the damage, traces of which were being removed today by a large force of workmen.
Moberly's story as related by Lynn was that he had gone to his room after stopping work at 4.30 p. m., and being fatigued had laid his head, down on his forearm across the desk and had fallen into a doze.
Suddenly he was awakened by flames and smoke and started to open the door, leading from the model room to the artist's room proper and was met by more flames and smoke, which he said, overcame him. His next recollection was when he came to in the office of Representative John Garner of Texas, two floors below, to which he had been taken by Capitol police and firemen.
Hall's statement was that he was an old friend of Moberly and had gone to the studio to visit him. He said Moberly appeared to be tired and he suggested that Moberly take a nap. Hall then picked up a paper. Hall asserted that he had not been smoking but that sometime afterward he noticed smoke; found the fire and undertook to extinguish it. He told the elevator boy of the fire and the boy advised the capitol police.
Capitol officials did not learn until late in the night that Hall had been on the scene of the fire at the time. Lynn said he would call Moberly and Hall before him again for questioning later in the day in a further effort to fix the exact cause of the fire.
Dr. George W. Calver, of the
(
Continued on Page Seventeen.)
Navy, assigned to duty at the House of Representatives, reiterated to newspapermen today his statement of last night that he had treated Moberly for suffocation caused by smoke fumes. He pointed out that paints and oils and chemicals in the studio had produced poisonous fumes which had overcome the artist.
Ten portraits of chief justices and Judges of the United States Court of Claims, which for years have looked down from the walls of that tribunal, were among the art objects, damaged or destroyed by the fire.
The portraits had been taken to the artist's room in the Capitol shortly before the fire broke out, in order that they might be retouched, and while no official estimate has been given of the damage done them court attaches said that it could not be estimated in terms of money.
Officials were more concerned over the cause of the blaze than the damage wrought. They said the loss would amount to about $3,000; that the fire in no way would interfere with the convening of Congress Monday from the holiday recess; and that such documents and papers as were charred or water soaked were not a part of the permanent files.
The fire was discovered at 7 p. m. Capitol police turned in an alarm that brought every engine in the business and near-in residential districts. Firemen on apparatus which had to travel over Pennsylvania avenue were spurred forward by the sight of the flames, leaping and glowing bright above the hundreds of electric lights that illuminate the building.
Reaching the Capitol a multitude of difficulties delayed the firemen. Most of the doors were locked. Some companies threw ladders against the structure to fight inward, while others smashed the thick plate glass in the revolving door opening from the rotunda to the East Plaza—the entrance through which thousands of tourists pass annually.
As firemen strove to reach the flames thousands of Washingtonians swarmed to Capitol Hill. Many in the city had missed the White House fire and last night as word spread that the Capitol was burning men, women and children hastened to the scene.
Police reserves were rushed to "The Hill," to assist the hastily mobilized Capitol police force in holding back the crowd that surged over the broad East Plaza.
So quickly did the crowd assemble, that hundreds were on hand before the last of the fire companies arrived and there were narrow escapes in several instances as the fire trucks roared into position.
On the west side still another crowd gathered on the sloping hill. Those who raced to this position had the best view of the flames piercing toward the sky.
Of the thousands obtaining information about the fire over the telephone was President Hoover. It was only a week ago that he stood on the west balcony of the White House, dressed in evening clothes and watched the fire in the executive offices. Last night he instructed White House aides to obtain all information and they immediately had a White House phone connected with the office of Representative Garner.
After firemen had smashed the east rotunda door, they carried hose lines through the rotunda—the walls of which are decorated with many valuable oil paintings of events of early American history, to reach the narrow, winding stairway to the fourth floor.
Other lines of hose were carried up the stairway opening just to the north of statuary hall, once the chamber of the House of Representatives. Later it was ascertained that no damage from water or smoke had resulted in either the hall or the rotunda, and within a short time after the blaze was out, charwomen had swabbed up the water pools on the floor.
The artist's room opened off a document room used to store principally bills, resolutions and committee reports. Some damage to these resulted but virtually all were copies. More valuable records nearby were not marred.
In Moberly's room, the artist had a plaster model of the Capitol building. It was a duplicate. The original model is in Spain, having been sent there for the Seville exposition. Water and fallen beams damaged the duplicate and other debris damaged to some extent models of several other public buildings. Some portraits of justices of Federal courts likewise suffered from water and smoke.
Firemen had the blaze under control in slightly more than 10 minutes after they put their first hose in action, but considerable time had been lost in reaching the fire because of the winding stairway---just across the building from that used by tourists who climb to the top of the dome. The inconspicuous entrance to the stairway added to the delay as the first group of firemen could not locate the door.
The fire was out within 45 minutes from the first alarm.
On the west, Moberly's room adjoined a runway under the eaves of the wing. Much water had settled in a vat in the floor of this runway and Fire Chief Watson turned his men to bailing from the moment the blaze was out.
Firemen were unable to explain what use is made of the vat, or concrete receptacle, but said they had been ordered to dry up as much water as possible to prevent its seepage into the offices below.
Immediately under the artist's room is the office of Representative John McDuffie of Alabama, the assistant House Democratic leader, while under McDuffie's office is the private office of Speaker Longworth. Representative Garner's office is opposite that of the speaker's, while several civic services, Justices of the Supreme Court as well as the chairmen of the House Banking and Indian Affairs committees have rooms in that section of the building.
Hardly had firemen stopped their bailing before janitors, committee employes and charwomen were at work. Before daylight they had cleaned up much of the wreckage. A tarpaulin had been stretched over the broken glass in the roof of the studio.
During the fire, those fighting from the inside could see the smoke that poured through this broken skylight drift up into the light played up on the dome and at times envelop an American flag floating in a gentle breeze over the center of the west entrance. No one explained how the flag happened to be flying after sunset.
Practically all the spectators had left before Moberly was removed from a couch in Representative Garner's office to a hospital. He had been treated at the Capitol by Dr. George W. Calvert, a naval physician assigned to duty at the House of Representatives.
Moberly is 61 years of age. He has been a decorator at the Capitol for nearly 30 years and his paint brush has renovated many of the historic paintings on the walls of the Capitol, as well as the designs along the corridors.
THE KNICKERBOCKER PRESS, Albany, New York, January 4, 1930
"Fire Sweeps U.S. Capitol at Washington. Flames Sear Upper Floors, Passing Dome. Document Room Wrecked by Blaze in House Quarters; Historic Papers May Have Been Destroyed. Thousands See Fire Creep Through Dome. Capitol Artist Found Overcome; Damage Is Believed To Be Slight."
Is the following a late Evening Edition, which has a second, shorter dateline tacked onto the head of the article? In the section below, our hero-villain-scapegoat is called "Carl" Moberly; later, and more correctly, he's called "Charles" Moberly. The AP normally stuck with Carl, which maybe got confused with "Chas," which is a diminutive for Charles.
January 4, 1930, The Reading [Penn.] Eagle, Page 1, Column 2,
Loss in U. S. Capitol Night Fire Only $3,000. Out in 45 Minutes After Spectacular Blaze At Side of Dome Lights Up Sky, Capitol Painter Unable To Explain Fire Start,
Washington, Jan. 4 (AP).--
Charles Moberly, Capitol artist, in whose studio the fire began that turned the dome of the Capitol into a torch for a time last night, was questioned today by
David S. Lynn, Capitol architect, but he threw little light upon the origin of the blaze.
Moberly, who
was found unconscious in his smoke filled room by firemen, appeared very nervous and said he did not know how the fire began and told Lynn that he seldom used cigarettes but smoked a pipe or cigar occasionally.
Lynn said he had learned that the alarm had been turned in by a man named Hall who had been in Moberly's studio before the fire originated. Hall, whose first name was not obtained, will probably be questioned some time today.
Another theory that defective electric wiring might have started the fire was dispelled by the report of a fire inspector who said that he had found the wiring in good condition.
Another possible cause took its place, however, when Moberly told Lynn that the fire might have begun from a pail of oil-soaked waste in the studio. He explained that he used the waste in cleaning and retouching pictures and said that in addition to being permeated with oil it contained certain chemicals used in retouching pictures.
"It settles down to one of two things," Lynn said. "Either it was caused by spontaneous combustion or from someone smoking."
Washington, Jan. 4 (AP).---The tongues of red flame that leaped through the roof of the southwest wing of the Capitol last night and licked at the side of the huge white dome had left today only a small blackened spot on the side of the building.
The vividness of the flare; the shrieking sirens of the fire apparatus; first thoughts that century old records, possibly the nearly nation-old structure itself might be endangered, had faded this morning and fast were becoming a part of the bulging history of Capitol Hill.
Officials were more concerned over the cause of the blaze than the damage wrought. They said the loss would amount to about $3,000; that the fire in no way would interfere with the convening of Congress Monday from the holiday recess; and that such documents and papers as were charred or water soaked were not a part of the permanent files.
Starts in Artist's Room
The blaze, far more spectacular than that which destroyed part of the Executive Office of the White House Christmas Eve, originated in a room occupied by
Carl Moberly, an artist, who had decorated many of the long corridors in both the Senate and House wings.
Moberly was rescued from the room in a partly suffocated condition.
He was given first aid treatment in the office of Representative John Gerner, of Texas, House Democratic leader, and later taken to a hospital.
Today he practically had recovered, and from him Capitol officials hope to obtain some light on the cause of the fire. Employees suggested the possibility that a cigarette or a cigar started the blaze.
The fire was discovered at 7 p.m.
Capitol police turned in an alarm that brought every engine in the business and near-in residential districts.
Firemen on apparatus which had to travel over Pennsylvania avenue were spurred forward by the sight of the flames, leaping and glowing bright above the hundreds of electric lights that illuminate the building.
Most of Doors Locked.
Reaching the Capitol a multitude of difficulties delayed the firemen. Most of the doors were locked. Some companies threw ladders against the structure to fight inwards,
while others smashed the thick plate glass in the revolving door opening from the rotunda to the east plaza---the entrance through which thousands of tourists pass annually.
As firemen strove to reach the flames thousands of Washingtonians swarmed to Capitol Hill. Many in the city had missed the White House fire, and last night as word spread that the Capitol was burning, men women and children hastened to the scene.
Police reserves were rushed to "The Hill," to assist the hastily mobilized Capitol police force in holding back the crowd that surged over the broad east plaza.
So quickly did the crowd assemble that hundreds were on hand before the first of the fire companies arrived, and there were narrow escapes in several instances as the fire trucks roared into position.
Best View of Flames.
On the west side still another crowd gathered on the sloping hill. Those who raced to this position had the best view of the flames piercing toward the sky.
Of the thousands obtaining information about the fire over the telephone was
President Hoover. It was only a week ago that he stood on the west balcony of the White House dressed in evening clothes and watched the fire in the executive offices. Last night he instructed White House aides to obtain all information and they immediately had a White House phone connected with the office of
Representative Garner.
After firemen had smashed the east rotunda door they carried hose lines through the rotunda---the walls of which are decorated with many valuable oil paintings of events of early American history, to reach the narrow winding stairway to the fourth floor.
Other lines of hose were carried up the stairway opening just to the north of statuary hall, once the chamber of the House of Representatives. Later it was ascertained that no damage from water or smoke had resulted in either the hall or the rotunda, and within a short time after the blaze was out charwomen had swabbed up the water pools on the floor.
Valuable Records Safe.
The artist's room opened off a document room used to store principally bills, resolutions and committee reports. Some damage to these resulted, but virtually all were copies.
More valuable records near by were not marred.
In Moberly's room, the artist had a plaster model of the Capitol Building. It was a duplicate. The original model is in Spain, having been sent there for the Seville Exposition. Water and fallen beams damaged the duplicate and other debris damaged to some extant models of several other public buildings. Some portraits of justices of federal courts likewise suffered from water and smoke.
Firemen had the blaze under control in slightly more than 10 minutes after they put their first hose in action, but considerable time had been lost in reaching the fire because of the winding stairway, just across the building from that used by tourists who climb to the top of the dome.
The inconspicuous entrance to the stairway added to the delay as the first group of firemen could not locate the door.
Out in 45 Minutes.
The fire was out within 45 minutes from the first alarm.
On the west, Moberly's room adjoined a runway under the eves of the wing. Much water had settled in a vat in the floor of this runway and Fire Chief Watson turned his men to bailing from the moment the blaze was out.
Firemen were unable to explain what use was made of the vat, or concrete receptacle, but said they had been ordered to dry up as much water as possible to prevent its seepage into the offices below.
Immediately under the artist's room is the office of
Representative John McDuffie, of Alabama, the assistant House Democratic leader, while under McDuffie's office is the private office of Speaker Longworth. Representative Garner's office is opposite that of the Speaker's, while several justices of the Supreme Court, as well as chairman of the House civil service banking and Indian affairs committees have rooms in that section of the building.
Wreckage Cleaned Up.
Hardly had firemen stopped their bailing before janitors, committee and office employees and charwomen were at work. Before daylight they had cleaned up much of the wreckage. A tarpaulin had been stretched over the broken glass in the roof of the studio.
During the fire, those fighting from the inside could see the smoke that poured through this broken skylight drift up into the light played upon the dome, and at times envelop an American flag floating in a gentle breeze over the center of the west entrance.
P.S. The Office of the Clerk, United States House of Representatives, is still calling him "Carl" Moberly here in 2012. This constitutes the "official" narrative of the fire. Fire (6)
The 1930 fire near the dome of the Capitol
January 03, 1930
At 7 pm on this date, two Capitol Police officers discovered a fire in the art restoration and modeling room in the Capitol. Located in an attic space near the dome, the fire illuminated the cold night sky. More than 27 fire crews from around the region responded to the fire alarms.The fire was confined to the room used by Carl Moberly, a resident artist at the Capitol. Water and smoke caused $3,000 in damages to a number of federal building models as well as portraits of federal judges which were undergoing restoration. A replica of the Capitol model (the original was at the Seville Exposition in Spain) suffered extensive damage.
Moberly was discovered unconscious on the floor of the room by Sidney Mitchell, superintendent of the House document folding room. He was taken to the office of Representative
John Garner of Texas and treated by Dr. George W. Calver, the House naval physician and the future Attending Physician of the Capitol.
After administering first aid, Dr. Calver evaluated Mr. Moberly and determined he was "in such condition that anything he might say as to the origin of the fire could not be depended upon." Moberly was transferred to a local hospital. Despite the difficult physical location of the blaze, firemen managed to extinguish it in less than an hour. To add to the chaos, thousands of spectators descended on the Capitol grounds joining a pack of movie newsreel photographers. Throughout the night, the Capitol Police maintained a perimeter around the building to keep crowds away.
January 4, 1930, Tyrone [Penn.] Daily Herald / U.P., Page 1, Column 8,
Documents and Oil Paintings Are Destroyed. Government To Investigate Cause of Blaze, Estimated Damage $7,000, Fire Originated In Storage Room—--Elevator Operator Discovers the Blaze-—Water Causes Considerable Damage—-Ceilings Damaged-—To Be Reconstructed at Once.
Washington, Jan. 4 (U. P.)—The cost and cause of a spectacular fire which for a short time last night threatened the rotunda of the capitol, were the subject of an investigation being conducted today by David Lynn, architect of the Capitol.
The blaze, which provided excitement for more than 10,000 onlookers, is believed to have caused only about $7,000 damage. This included $4,000 for destroyed documents and oil paintings of several justices of the court of claims. Duplicates of the documents are available elsewhere.
The fire started either in the artists' studio or the document storage room, just off the base of the big rotunda. It was confined to those two rooms.
The blaze, which came just nine days after flames raked the White House executive offices, started shortly after 7 p. m. and was extinguished less than an hour later.
Firemen, brought from all parts of the city by five alarms, found Charles Moberly, a capitol artist, unconscious in the burning studio when they gained entrance. He was taken to a nearby room, occupied by Democratic House floor leader Garner, of Texas, and revived. His injuries were confined, largely to shock, physicians said, and he should require only a rest.
The studio is located at the top of the House wing of the building, near the dome. It was filled with artists' materials and a number of valuable oil portraits of former state officials. These were saved and will be ready for hanging after refurnishing.
In the adjoining document room, however, between 500 and 1,000 bound volumes of bills were damaged and probably ruined.
Thousands of unbound documents on nearby shelves escaped the flames only by a little and many of these may be damaged by water.
Early estimates placed the damage to documents at nearly $4,000 and that to wooden partition walls of the two rooms at some $3,000. Only these wooden walls and furnishings were inflammable, it was said. The walls of the building itself of sandstone from three to five feet thick.
Had the flames succeeded in gaining the rotunda, it was pointed out, great damage might have been done to the mural decorations on the walls and dome. Prompt work by firemen, however, kept the flames from making any great threat to that section of the building.
The blaze was discovered by Kenneth Keeler, of Salt Lake City, an elevator operator, who turned in the alarm. Keeler and a capitol guard fought the fire with extinguishers until the firemen arrived.
As news of the fire spread about, the city excitement became intense. Automobiles from all parts of the city were turned toward Capitol Hill. On the plaza before the building several thousand persons, many of whom witnessed the White House blaze, gathered to watch the smoke curl from skylights.
Flames appeared, at times, to lick the base of the dome leading watchers to believe the fire was even more serious than it later proved to be.
Complete extent of the damage can not be estimated until the extent of water damage is determined. Because of the thick walls it will require some time to learn what effect seeping water will have on the ceilings of rooms below.
Some damage was reported to the ceiling of Associate Justice Sanford's office on the floor below, and firemen ripped away some marble wainscoting nearby to determine the cause of heat within the walls.
The investigation showed that water, heated by the flames, had seeped into the building walls, transforming nearby sections into a veritable "radiator."
It was considered possible that further investigation might show the need of more reconstruction work than at first estimated. The fire was the worst the capitol building had known in many years. The interior of both wings of the central section was destroyed by fire in August 1814, set by invading British troops.
Rebuilding was started in 1818 and completed in 1827 at a total cost of $2,433,844.
(
Continued on page 3.)
The Capitol, like other government buildings here carries no insurance, although the building cost $15,000,000, and is valued, with the grounds, at $37,500,000. Insurance premiums, it is pointed out, would cost the government as much, at least, as the damage bills occasionally called upon to pay.
January 4, 1930, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Page 1, Column 1,
Capitol Artist Denies Cigaret Cause of Blaze. Moberly Questioned by Architect Says Pail of Oil-Soaked Waste May Have Ignited—Damage Said to Exceed $3,000.
Washington, Jan. 4 (AP)--Charles Moberly, Capitol artist, in whose studio the fire began that licked the dome of the Capitol for a time last night, was questioned today by David S. Lynn, Capitol architect, but he threw little light upon the origin of the blaze.
Moberly, who was found unconscious in his smoke-filled room by firemen, appeared very nervous and said he did not know how the fire began, and told Lynn that he seldom used cigarettes, but smoked a pipe or cigar occasionally. The theory had been entertained that a cigaret, cigar, or match carelessly tossed away might have smoldered until it burst into flame.
Seek-Studio Visitor.
Lynn said he had learned that the alarm had been turned in by a man, named Hall, who had been in Moberly's studio before the fire originated. Hall, whose first name was not obtained, will probably be questioned sometime today.
Another theory that defective electric wiring might have started the fire was dispelled by the report of a fire inspector, who said that he had found the wiring in good condition.
Another possible cause took its place, however, when Moberly told Lynn that the fire might have begun from a pail of oil-soaked waste in the studio. He explained that he used the waste in cleaning and retouching pictures and said that in addition to being permeated with oil it contained certain chemicals used in retouching pictures.
Workmen Busy Early.
"It settles down to one of two things," Lynn said. "Either it was caused by spontaneous combustion or from some one smoking."
He added that the investigation was being continued and that it was too early for a detailed report.
A crew of men was put to work early today cleaning out debris in the ruined studio and they had not been on the job long before a crowd of curious and souvenir hunters gathered. The latter were warned away by police.
An inspection by the Capitol architect convinced him that there was no reason to raise the estimate of last night: which placed the damage at $3,000. He said there was no structural damage of consequence. Several portraits, most of them those of Justices of the Court of Claims, were damaged by smoke and water and some documents were damaged by water.
Flames Leaped High.
The fire was discovered at 7 p.m. Capitol police turned in the alarm. They sounded a five-call notice that brought every engine in the business and near-in residential districts.
Reaching the Capitol a multitude of difficulties delayed the firemen. Most of the doors were locked. Some companies threw ladders against the structure to fight inward, while others smashed the thick plate glass in the revolving door opening from the rotunda to the East Plaza— the entrance through which thousands of tourists pass annually.
Thousands at Scene.
Police reserves were rushed to the scene to assist the hastily mobilized Capitol police force in holding back
the crowd that surged over the broad East Plaza.
Of the thousands obtaining information about the fire over the telephone was President Hoover. It was only a week ago that he stood on the west balcony of the White House dressed in evening clothes and watched the fire in the executive offices. Last, night he instructed White House aids to obtain all information and they immediately had a phone connected with the office of Representative Garner. After firemen had smashed the east rotunda door they carried hose lines through the rotunda—the
Please Turn to Page 2,
walls of which are decorated with many valuable oil paintings of events of early American history.
Capitol Model Damaged.
The artist's studio opened off a document room used to store bills, resolutions and committee reports. Some damage to these resulted, but practically, all were copies.
In Moberly's room the artist had a plaster model of the Capitol building. It was a duplicate. The original model is in Spain, having been sent there for the Seville exposition. Water and a fallen beam damaged the duplicate, while other debris damaged to some extent models of several other public buildings. Some portraits of justices of Federal courts, likewise, suffered from the water and smoke.
Firemen had the blaze under control in slightly more than 18 minutes after they put their first hose in action, but considerable time had been lost in reaching the fire because of the winding stairway to the top of the dome. The inconspicuous entrance to the stairway added to the delay, as the first group of firemen could not locate the door.
Third Fire Since August.
Practically all the spectators had left before Moberly was removed from a couch in Representative Garner's office to a hospital. He had been treated at the capital by Dr. George W. Calvert, a naval physician assigned to duty at the House of Representatives.
Moberly is 61 years of age. He has been a decorator at the Capitol for nearly 30 years and his paint brush had renovated many of the historic paintings on the walls of the Capitol as well as the designs along the corridors.
The fire last night was the third since August. The other two were blazing trash boxes ignited by carelessly tossed cigarettes. Bert W. Kennedy, the doorkeeper of the House, said today he had counted ten fires during his many years of service at the Capitol. That last night, however, was the first time in six years the city fire department had been called upon.
Quick Work by Firemen.
The fire was out within 45 minutes from the first alarm. On the west, Moberly's room adjoined a runway under the eaves of the wing. Immediately under the artist's room is the office of Representative John McDuffie of Alabama, the assistant House Democratic leader, while under McDuffie's office is the private office of Speaker Longworth.
The first Attending Physician of the Capitol, Dr. George Calver.
From the February 3, 1951, New York Times,
A Doctor's Warning:
"On December 5, 1928, the House passed a resolution directing the secretary of the navy to detail a medical officer to be present near the House Chamber while that body was in session."
So, 7 p. m. Friday evening, January 4th, 1930, Congress was still in holiday recess, scheduled to reconvene the following Monday. What was Calver doing in the Capitol?
January 4, 1930, The Medina [NY] Daily Journal, Page 1, Columns 7 & 8,
Capitol at Washington Damaged by Fire Last Evening, Blaze Raged For 45 Minutes and Flames Shot Above Dome.
Washington, D. C. Jan 3—Fire blazed for more than 30 minutes tonight about the dome of the Capitol of the United States. Originating in the room of a Capitol artist, it damaged the documents of the house and sent flames shooting toward the great figure of Liberty on its top, while thousands within the great parkways stood by in fear that the historical building would be destroyed.
More than twenty fire companies were called upon to fight the stubborn blaze which at first smouldered beneath the roof and then broke through to shoot shafts of reddish hue in to the air. The blaze could be plainly seen all along Pennsylvania avenue and from the White House itself, where a Christmas eve blaze burned President Hoover's executive offices.
Carl Moberly, the artist, was found almost suffocated and was removed to an office of the building, the Capitol officials immediately began an investigation to determine whether a carelessly tossed cigarette might have caused all of the damage.
In order to reach Moberly's room, firemen first battered through a locked revolving door at the east entrance of the rotunda through which thousands of tourists pass each year. Outside on the spacious east plaza of the Capitol dozens of fire engines, hook and ladder companies, fire pumpers, fire supply cars, fire aid wagons and police reserve patrol wagons were parked.
Beyond this hastily formed battery of fire fighting and first-aid apparatus, district and capitol police held back thousands of spectators who had been attracted to the Capitol. Here and there on the granite doorway over which those prominent in public life for more than a century as well as millions of ordinary American citizens have walked, were pools of water.
The fire was discovered by members of the Capitol Park Police.
Attaches of the Capitol said that if the fire had reached certain portions of the document room, valuable papers dating back to the time of George Washington would have been destroyed in addition to those of recent years which did suffer. Moberly had been in his, office for some time before the fire was discovered. Whether he had friends with him was unknown. He was alone when rescued.
January 4, 1930, The Titusville Herald, Page 1, Column 1,
Twenty Fire Companies Quickly Respond and Confine Blaze To Document Room, By Associated Press
WASHINGTON, Jan. 3. — Flames shot skyward from the capitol of the United States tonight in a blaze more spectacular than that which ruined the White House executive offices on Christmas eve.
After 45 minutes of desperate work firemen extinguished the fire in the artists' studio on the top floor of the house side just to the west of the huge white dome. For a while destruction of the document room where historic records of the nation are stored was threatened. These were damaged by water and smoke.
Carl Moberly,
one of the artists, was carried unconscious from the studio. Investigation of the cause of the fire late tonight was awaiting his recovery.
Flames shot from the roof upon the dome of the capitol as firemen sped from every corner of the city.
The firemen experienced great difficulty reaching the studio with water because of the small corridors and winding staircases to the fourth floor where it is situated. Twenty minutes had elapsed before water could be played from the long hose lines rapidly strung together.
Strung Over Ladders
Meanwhile ladders were reared up the white sides of the building, and over these more hose was stretched. David S. Lynn, capitol architect,
and police immediately began an investigation to determine the cause of the blaze. It was said that a lighted cigarette might have been responsible.
The alarm was turned in at 7 p. m. by member of the capitol police force, whose attention had been attracted by smoke some time before the source was determined. A general alarm brought companies from all corners of the city.
Fire Chief Watson announced. the flames had been extinguished 45 minutes later. He estimated the damage as slight, and the figure was placed at $3,000 by Lynn.
Water Rushes Down
Water rushed down the stairways of all four floors, some seeping into the private offices of members of the supreme court and various representatives. Among these was the room of Representative McFadden of Pennsylvania, who went to the capitol. Representative Cramton of Michigan also was there.
The numerous figures in statuary hall and the oil paintings in the corridor, many of them depicting the history of America, were unharmed.
Moberly—-who is 61 years old-—was removed to a hospital as soon as his condition warranted. Dr. George W. Calver, navy physician assigned to the house of representatives, said the artist was "in such a condition that anything he might say as to the origin of the fire could not be depended upon."
The fire tonight was the third since August in the structure where the legislative business of the nation is transacted. Then a carelessly thrown cigarette lighted a trash box on the south side of the building and only about a week ago another trash box was ignited in the house office building by a cigarette.
There was no damage at the other two fires, but they caused some excitement.
January 5, 1930, New York Times, Page 1,
Blaze in Capitol Remains Unsolved, Architect Reports Cigarette or Spontaneous Combustion as the Probable Cause. Artist Tells His Story. Denies Smoking as Does Friend Who Found Him Asleep and Tried to Put Out Fire.
Washington, Jan. 4 -- The cause of the fire which last night threatened for a time to do serious damage to the historic Capitol building remained in doubt today. After an investigation David Lynn, architect of the Capitol, reached the conclusion that the blaze was started by a lighted cigar or cigarette butt dropped inadvertently in the studio room under the roof or from spontaneous combustion in some of the painting materials used there.
Mr. Lynn stated this opinion officially to Speaker Longworth and Vice President Curtis after he had examined Charles E. Moberly, the artist who, unconscious from smoke, was carried from the studio room soon after the flames were discovered. He reported at the architect's office in good physical condition this morning, Mr. Lynn said, despite his experience.
A friend of the artist, Sam Hall, told Mr. Lynn that, calling to see Mr. Moberly, he found the artist leaning over his desk in the studio, fast asleep. Hall did not wake him but picked up a paper and started reading.
He smelled smoke and then saw it coming from under the thin partition which separates the studio from the reserve document storage room.
Mr. Hall found a fire extinguisher and tried to put out the flames, but failing, called to
the operator of a small elevator that runs from the corridor off the rotunda and told him to sound an alarm. Meantime, Capitol police had arrived and they tried to arouse Mr. Moberly, who had been overcome with smoke. They carried him to the office of
Representative Garner of Texas.
Mr. Lynn made public a written statement giving Mr. Moberly's version of his movements up to the time he was overcome. It read:
"Mr. Moberly states that he went to the studio between 2 and 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the fire after doing some work in the Senate wing of the Capitol. He began working on drawings and putting away material and straightening up around
the studio.
"Around 4 o'clock he fell asleep on his desk. He was awakened by a noise which sounded like some one trying to break in.
He rushed to the inner door leading to the model room and opened it. The flames were so intense at this time that he was overcome and does not remember anything until he came to on a couch in Representative Garner's office. He states that the reason he stayed in the studio on this particular
afternoon was because he lives alone and it was lonesome in his living quarters. He would rather remain in his studio and work to pass the time away.
"Mr. Moberly states that a tub of rags was near a wooden table in the model room. These rages were waste, soaked with oil. Fresh rags had been put there in the afternoon. He does not when the tub was last emptied. He states that it is customary to pour water into this tub to prevent fires, but does not recall that water was put in there on this particular day. He states that he did not place the rags in the tub, but that the other Capitol artist had been restoring some paintings with a special preparation composed of inflammable materials in the morning.
"Mr. Moberly further states that he is not a smoker and had not been smoking at any time during the day of the fire. No other person was in the studio after 4 o'clock, other than Mr. Moberly, he states, to the best of his knowledge and belief."
Mr. Lynn said that he asked Mr. Moberly about rumors that he had been drinking and was told by Mr. Moberly that he had "taken a couple of drinks about 12:30 but no more."
Mr. Hall also declared that he had not smoked while he was in the studio.
Most of the damage investigation today showed,
was confined to the artist's quarters where the fire started and to which it was confined. Some documents in the storage room, nearest the studio entrance, were damaged by water and smoke, but none of them was considered of much worth. They were largely copies of printed documents which can easily be replaced. The total damage was not increased above the $3,000 estimate of yesterday. The government carries no insurance.
A number of portraits which Mr. Moberly and the other artist were retouching were counted as lost. Mr. Lynn still was uncertain as to the exact number destroyed. Among them, he thought, were eight or ten portraits of justices of the Court of Claims and perhaps two or three from the State Department.
The unveiling of the Capitol model
March 31, 1904
On this date, a model of the Capitol, designed to show the building with the East Front extension originally envisioned by architect Thomas U. Walter, was unveiled in the Rotunda.
The model of the Capitol was constructed in 1903 in an attic room in the Capitol. The model is more than 12 feet long and more than five feet wide.
On this date, a model of the Capitol, designed to show the building with the East Front extension originally envisioned by architect Thomas U. Walter, was unveiled in the Rotunda. For decades, Congress had ignored reminders that Walter’s plans for a central extension off the east side of the Rotunda were unfulfilled. Architect of the Capitol Elliott Woods estimated the cost of such as extension—which would project the building outward more than 100 feet and create needed rooms for committees—at $2.3 million. Woods had a powerful ally in Speaker of the House
Joe Cannon of Illinois. In February 1903,
Speaker Cannon declared on the House Floor his support for appropriating funds for an extension, noting that in his youth the building had reached "substantial completion—not full completion" and that despite its architectural grandeur the time had arrived "for the completion of this Capitol." Moreover, the project fit the national temperament which, as architectural historian Bill Allen has written, was "hospitable to ambitious civic improvements that would tout America's growing wealth, power, and self-confidence." The House was more cautious than Cannon, but appropriated $7,000 for studies and a model. Woods worked with the architectural firm Carrere & Hastings to develop plans. In the summer of 1903, French artist Emile Garet and a staff of four toiled on the top floor of the Capitol to complete the plaster model. When the model was unveiled the following spring, the Washington Post described it as "much admired as an excellent specimen of artistic workmanship." The following month Congress established a commission to consider the plans, but the East Front extension was not initiated until 1958 and completed in 1962. Today, the plaster Capitol model resides in the basement rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building.
January 5, 1930, The Huntsville Daily Times,
Flames Lick at Capital Dome (DC); Grand Old Building Was Endangered But Damage Was Slight.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 (AP)- The tongues of red flamed that leaped through the roof of the southwest wing of the capitol last night and licked at the side of the huge white dome had left today only a small blackened spot on the side of the building.
The vividness of the flame; the shrieking sirens of the apparatus; first thoughts that century old records, possibly the nearly nation-old structure itself, might be endangered had faded this morning and fast were becoming a part of the bulging history of Capitol Hill.
Officials were more concerned over the cause of the blaze that the damage wrought. They said the loss would amount to about $3,000 that the fire in no way would interfere with the convening of congress Monday from the holiday recess and that such documents and papers as were charred or water soaked were not a part of the permanent files.
The blaze, far more spectacular than that which destroyed part of the executive office of the White House Christmas Eve, originated in a room
occupied by
Carl Moberly, an artist who has decorated many of the long corridors in both the senate and house wings.
Moberly was rescued from the room in a partly suffocated condition. He was administered first aid in the office of
Representative John Garner of Texas, the house democratic leader, and later taken to a hospital.
Today he practically had recovered and from him capitol officials hope to obtain some light on the cause of the fire.
Several capitol employees suggested the possibility that a cigarette or a cigar started the blaze.
David S. Lynn, the Capitol architect, and
Joseph G. Rodgers, the house sergeant at arms, reiterated this morning that they proposed to investigate carefully into the cause.
Both were at the capitol last night before the flames were extinguished.
The fire was discovered at 7 p.m.
Capitol police turned in the alarm. They sounded a five call notice that brought every engine in the business and near-in residential districts.
Reaching the capitol a multitude of difficulties delayed the firemen. Most of the doors were locked. Some companies threw ladders against the structure to fight inward while others smashed the thick plate glass in the revolving door opening from the rotunda to the east plaza – the entrance through which thousands of tourists pass annually.
As firemen strove to reach the flames thousands of Washintonians swarmed to Capitol Hill.
Police reserves were rushed to "the hill",
as the site of the capitol is known in Washington, to assist the hastily mobilized capitol police force in holding back the crowd that surged over the board east plaza.
Of the thousands obtaining information about the fire over the telephone was
President Hoover. It was only a week ago that he stood on the west balcony of the White House dressed in evening clothes and watched the fire in the executive offices. Last night, he instructed White House aides to obtain all information and they immediately had a White House phone connected with the office of Representative Garner.
The artist's room opened off a document room used to store principally bills, resolutions and committee reports. Some damage to these resulted but practically all were copies. More valuable records
nearby were not marred.
In Moberly’s room,
the artist had a plaster model of the capitol building. It was a duplicate. The original model is in Spain, having been sent there for the Seville exposition. Water and
a fallen beam damaged the duplicate.
Firemen had the blaze under control in slightly more than 10 minutes after they put their first hose in action, but considerable time had been lost in reaching the fire because of the winding stairway just across the building from that used by tourists who climb to the top of the dome. The inconspicuous entrance to the stairway added to the delay as the first group of firemen could not located the door.
The fire was out within 45 minutes from the first alarm.
During the fire, those fighting from the inside could see the smoke that poured through a broken skylight drift up into the light played upon the dome and at times envelop on an American flag floating in a gentle breeze over the center of the west entrance. No one explained how the flag happened to be flying after sunset.
Practically all the spectators left before Moberly was removed from a couch in Representative Garner’s office to a hospital.
January 5, 1930, [Rochester] Democrat Chronicle, Page 1, Column 1,
FIRE CAUSE AT CAPITOL NOT FOUND, Spontaneous Combustion or Careless Smoker Thought Most Likely Source, ARTIST ADMITS DRINKING, But Denies He Was Drunk; Friend Made Futile Effort To Put Out Blaze.
Washington Jan. 4 — (AP) — Completing his investigation of last night's spectacular fire in the artist's studio of the Capitol beside the majestic dome. David S. Lynn, architect of the building, said he was unable to determine whether the blaze had its origin with "a careless smoker or from spontaneous combustion."
Questioned as to whether Charles E. Moberly, the artist who was taken unconscious from the studio during the fire, had been drinking. Mr. Lynn said he had no reason to believe that he had been.
"He told me that he had had one or two drinks around noon, but none after that," Mr. Lynn said
His Version of Fire
As the architect constructed the scene from the stories of Moberly and Samuel Hall, a former Capitol policeman who twice called at the studio and was there when the fire started; it was about like this:
Moberly, who had been touching up decorations in the halls of the Senate wing of the Capitol, went to the studio between 2 and 3 o'clock and engaged in some work and in tidying up the place. About 4 o'clock, three hours before the first alarm was given, he fell asleep at his desk with his head on his arm.
Almost two hours later, Hall, who occasionally visited the artist and about whom Capitol officials said they knew little, called at the studio, climbing the long winding three flight below. He found Moberly asleep in his chair with his head on his desk. He left to get something to eat at a nearby restaurant and returned shortly after 4 P. M.
Moberly still was asleep and Hall sat down to read a newspaper, he asserted that he had not been smoking and that within half an hour or so he smelled smoke, investigated and found fire in the adjoining room where models of the Capitol are stored.
Continued on Page Four
Rushing into a nearby document room, he obtained a fire extinguisher and sought to put out the blaze, but was unsuccessful and notified the operator of an elevator in an adjoining hall. He then left the building, returning sometime later when he first was questioned by officials of the building.
Moberly's statement as given by Mr. Lynn was that he was awakened by a noise which sounded like someone trying to break in. Opening the door to the model room, he was greeted by smoke and flames and was overcome by fumes. He said he did not remember anything after that until he recovered consciousness. An attache in the office of Representative John Garner of Texas, to which he had been taken by firemen and police. Moberly still was under the care of Dr. George W. Calver, the House physician, who reiterated that he had treated the artist for partial suffocation from smoke and paint fumes and for a cut on the aide of his head. Lynn made a report of his investigation to Speaker Longworth and also will report to Vice-President Curtis. These two officials are custodians of the Capitol.
Working through the night and all of today, laborers removed all traces of the fire, cleaning out the brick-walled studio and model rooms, and recovering the skylights with which they are roofed. Some damage from water done to electric light conduits was removed and the building ready for the reconvening of Congress next Monday.
While nasty repairs were being made there, the superintendent of public buildings and grounds awarded the contract for rebuilding the White House executive offices, which were wrecked by fire on Christmas Eve.
False Baccardi Dialectics
January 5 1930, The Brooklyn Eagle, Page A2,
Rum In Capitol Fire, Artist Admits He Took 2 Drinks Few Hours Before Studio Blaze—-Prober Says Various Versions Don't Jibe-—Will Continue Inquiry.
Washington, Jan. 4 — Congress, ever sensitive on the subject of drinking beneath the dome of the Capitol, has something new to consider to-night in the revelation that Charles E. Moberly, Capitol artist, in whose office last night fire originated, had at least two drinks at 12:30 Friday afternoon.
The fire did little damage. Mr. Moberly is 61, has been 30 years in Government service and is due for retirement on pension next August. The District of Columbia fire marshal will report that, the cause of the fire was either careless smoking or spontaneous combustion in a tub of oil-soaked painter's rags.
"I haven't any reason to believe that there was any drinking other than the two drinks which Mr. Moberly said he took early in the afternoon," said David Lynn, architect of the Capitol, to-night, in repudiating the suggestion that the fire originated from a cigarette or cigar tossed aside in the course of a drinking party. The exact origin of the fire, however, has not been determined.
Two Conflicting Versions.
"The information I have received has not convinced me yet as to the origin of the fire," Lynn added. "It was caused by spontaneous combustion or someone smoking. Mr. Moberly says he was not smoking. Samuel Hall a former Capitol policeman, says he was up there. He says he was not smoking. Hall is understood to have discovered the fire, but Captain Gnash of the Capitol police force says it was discovered by two of his sons,
Please turn to page 2.
who were driving by the Capitol, who saw smoke issuing from the roof and sounded the alarm. Hall says, that as soon as he discovered the fire he went out and got a fire extinguisher and, tried to put the fire out. Moberly was sleeping at his desk.
Did Hall rescue Moberly how could the latter have been overcome by smoke if Hall was there?"
"That is still to be determined." said Mr. Lynn. "Things don't gee up exactly."
"Where did the fire start?"
"We haven't been able to ascertain this fact. There was a tub in the marble room in which oily rags were kept. If it started from spontaneous combustion it probably started in the tub, but we are not sure."
As to Drinking Evidence.
"Did you discover any evidence of drinking?"
"I personally have not."
"Have you any reports about drinking up there?"
"The House physician who treated Moberly said the artist was overcome by smoke."
"Did Moberly say he had been drinking?"
"Yes, he said he had been. He drinks.
An aide of Mr. Lynn remarked that Moberly said he had taken two drinks about 12:30 p.m.
"Did Mr. Moberly say, Mr. Lynn, that he took his last drink at 12:30?"
"No: it might have been his first drink."
"Was anyone else in the room other than Moberly and Samuel Hall?"
"No."
"Will Moberly be continued as a Capitol artist?"
"That is something I shall have to determine."
Refers to "Physician,"
"Did the House physician comment on the physical condition, of Moberly other than that he was suffering from suffocation?"
"You will have to get any information of that kind from the House physician. There is nothing more I can say at this time except I am continuing my investigation."
Dr. George W. Calver the House physician and a commander in the medical corps of the United States Navy, refused not only to amplify the statement he made last night but declined to be interviewed; saying he had many patients to attend to, and that he could not be disturbed." When advised that a large group of newspapermen were insisting on seeing him he sent out the following verbal message:
"I have nothing more to say other than that I treated Moberly for suffocation."
Moberly's version of the fire, as given out at Architect Lynn's office this afternoon, is as follows:
"Mr. Moberly states that he went into the studio between 2 and 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the fire after doing some work in the Senate wing of Capitol. He began working on drawings, and putting away materials and straightening up around the studio.
Awakened By Noise.
Around 4 o'clock he fell asleep on his desk. He was awakened by a noise which sounded like some one trying to break in, He rushed to the inner door leading to the model room, and opened it. The flames of the fire were so intense at this time that he was overcome and does not remember anything until he came to on a couch in Representative Garner's office. He states that the reason he stayed in his studio this particular afternoon, was because he lived alone, and it is lonesome there. He would rather remain in his studio and work to pass the time away.
"Mr. Moberly states that a tub of rags was situated near a wooden table in the model room. These, rags are waste and soaked with oil. Fresh rags had been put there in the afternoon. He does not know how long before this day that the tub was last emptied. He states that it is customary to pour water in this tub to prevent fire, but does not recall that water was put there on this particular day. He states that he did not place the rags in the tub, but that the other Capitol artist had been restoring some paintings with a special preparation composed of some inflammable materials that morning.
Moberly Not a Smoker.
"Mr. Moberly further states "that he is not a smoker, and had not been smoking at any time during the day of the fire. No other person was in the studio after 4 o'clock either than Mr. Moberly," so he states to the best of his knowledge and beliefs,
Moberly and Samuel Hall, It was explained tonight that Hall came into the studio sometime prior to 6 P. M. and found Moberly asleep at his desk. Hall then went out to get something to eat returned—to the studio picked up a newspaper and started reading. When he discovered the fire, he rushed out to get a the extinguisher.
At that point. Moberly awakened, so it stated, threw open the door between the studio and the model room and was knocked unconscious when a wall.of same burst in his face. According? to this version, Moberly never knew Hall had been in his office
January 13, 1930, Time Magazine, "
The Congress: Fire No. 2."
THE CONGRESS: Fire No. 2
Bright by night is the white dome of the U. S. Capitol, set like an enormous frosted wedding cake in the glare of encircling batteries of searchlights. Brighter than ever was the dome one evening hour last week when sharp flames leaped up through the Capitol roof.
A guard first spied smoke crawling out of cornices in the House wing close to the dome. Up four flights of circular iron stairs he raced to discover a roaring blaze in a room under the eaves used for storage of old Congressional documents. Also in the fiery room were the materials of artists who constantly retouch and restore the Capitol's decorations. On the floor, unconscious, lay
Charles Moberly, 61, Capitol artist. He was dragged out, carried downstairs, revived.
A crowd as large as any for an inaugural gathered in the plaza to watch almost all of Washington's firemen subdue the fire.
The document room, tucked away behind corridors, was hard to reach. Firefighters scaled the walls, fought the flames downward through the roof. Cameramen's flashlights added to the radiance of the scene. Senators. Congressmen, Justices of the Supreme Court hustled "up the hill" from dinner to see their workshop burn.
Water leaked down on
Associate Justice Edward Terry Sanford. who hastily spread a tarpaulin over his office desk and papers. The rotunda was a puddle ankle-deep. In 45 minutes the fire was out.
Damage: $5,000.
David Lynn, architect of the Capitol and its official proprietor, found masses of government documents of no historic worth destroyed, a portrait of himself ruined. A falling beam had smashed a ten-foot plaster model of the Capitol.
Like many another, Architect Lynn suspected a match or cigaret butt had been carelessly thrown into inflammable oils, paints, papers. Still incoherent from inhaled fumes. Artist Moberly babbled that he did not smoke cigarets, only cigars, that, in fact, he did not smoke at all. Later he admitted that he had had "a couple of drinks" in the afternoon, had fallen asleep over his desk in the storage room. With him, he said, was a man named Sam Hall who had been reading a newspaper. When he awoke. Hall was fighting the fire.
Capitol rumor: The storage room, tucked off in a nook by itself, was used as a drinking place and general rendezvous by Capitol employes.
Suspicious citizens immediately linked the Capitol fire with that at the White House offices fortnight ago, spoke darkly of incendiarism. Both blazes had started mysteriously under the roof amid bales of documents at about the same evening hour when the buildings were deserted. Exclaimed
Senator Vandenberg of Michigan after the Capitol fire: "This is more than a coincidence!"
The first Sergeant at Arms, Joseph Wheaton
May 12, 1789
On this date, the House elected its first
Sergeant at Arms, Joseph Wheaton. As the chamber’s principal law enforcement official, the modern day Sergeant at Arms maintains security on the floor and for the House side of the Capitol complex. Mandated under the current House Rule II, the Sergeant at Arms also enforces protocol and ensures decorum during floor proceedings. The
First Congress (1789–1791) adopted many of the traditions of colonial parliamentary bodies and the British Parliament, including the use of a ceremonial mace by the Sergeant at Arms to symbolize the national legislature’s power. The House declared on April 14, 1789, that, “A proper symbol of office shall be provided for the Sergeant at Arms, of such form and device as the Speaker shall direct, which shall be borne by the Sergeant when in the execution of his office.” The original House Mace was destroyed when British forces burned the Capitol in 1814. New York silversmith William Adams crafted the current mace in 1841. Crowned with an eagle atop of a globe, the current mace is comprised of 13 ebony rods bound by silver bands, representing the 13 original colonies.
Clerk of the House Patrick Magruder
May 24, 1813
On the opening day of the
13th Congress (1813–1815),
Patrick Magruder of Maryland was elected to a fourth consecutive term as
Clerk of the House. But his fortunes changed when British forces sacked the capital city in August 1814. Popular and respected, Magruder first was chosen to serve as Clerk shortly after losing his House seat in the 1806 elections. In August 1814, Magruder was on leave for a protracted illness when British forces arrived. The invaders torched the Capitol, destroying much of the building, many congressional documents, and the holdings of the Library of Congress (at that time, the Clerk of the House was also the Librarian of Congress). Afterwards, Members were incensed that Magruder’s staff (then led in an acting capacity by his brother, George) had failed to save vital House records, including receipts and vouchers for congressional accounts. These had been locked in a desk and destroyed in the fire (apparently the only federal financial records lost to invading British forces). To clear his name, Magruder requested an internal investigation. House Speaker
Langdon Cheves of South Carolina appointed a select investigatory committee chaired by Congressman
Joseph Pearson of North Carolina. The committee discovered several financial discrepancies, including what it claimed to be nearly $20,000 in missing funds. Magruder addressed a letter to
Speaker Cheves in December 1814 refuting the charges. But less than a month later, on January 21, 1815, Representative
James Clark of Kentucky introduced a resolution to remove Magruder from office. Though the House postponed the vote for a week, Magruder resigned days later. In a letter to the Speaker, he professed "my entire innocence and ignorance of any misapplication of the public moneys," and further defended his brother by noting that he could have accounted for all his expenditures "had not the unfortunate conflagration of the Capitol destroyed his accounts." Patrick Magruder retired to his wife's family plantation near Petersburg, Virginia, where he died in 1819.
The burning of the Capitol in 1814
August 24, 1814
In the most devastating blow suffered by the U.S. during the War of 1812, British forces overran the capital city on this date setting fire to most major public buildings, including the U.S. Capitol. The attack occurred during a congressional recess, the House having adjourned for the session in April. When Members returned in September, Congress considered removing the seat of government from Washington. Fearing that a temporary relocation would become permanent, opponents killed the motion on the House Floor. It would take nearly five years to rebuild the House Chamber. One of the unintended consequences of the burning of the Capitol was the resignation of House Clerk
Patrick Magruder. Magruder was not present in Washington on the day of the event and his two deputies mustered with local militia to defend the city. Despite these circumstances, Magruder was held responsible for the loss of many House records and he submitted his resignation on January 28, 1815
Thomas Jefferson’s library
October 10, 1814
On this date a joint resolution to purchase Thomas Jefferson’s library for the new Library of Congress was introduced in the House of Representatives. The
British burning of the Capitol six weeks earlier destroyed the entire congressional book collection and many office documents. Former President and Continental Congress Delegate
Thomas Jefferson offered to sell his collection for use by the House and Senate. After more than three months of deliberating, Congress purchased 6,487 volumes for $23,950. A few Members of the House opposed buying the collection because it contained controversial authors. According to the Annals of Congress, “The objections to the purchase were generally its extent, the cost of the purchase, the nature of selection, embracing too many works in foreign languages, some of too philosophical a character, and some otherwise objectionable. Of the first description, exception was taken to Voltaire’s works, &, co., and of the other to Callender’s Prospect Before Us.” Despite minor objections, the House purchased the books and the collection arrived in Washington, D.C., in early 1815, providing the reconstituted core of the library’s holdings.
An 1825 Library of Congress fire
December 22, 1825
On this date, the Library of Congress, then located in a room on the west side of the Capitol, caught on fire. Late in the evening Representative
Edward Everett of Massachusetts noticed a suspicious light in the window near the library as he departed a Capitol Hill dinner party. Everett informed a Capitol Police officer who did not have a key to the library door and dismissed Everett’s concern. The Congressman returned to his nearby home. Other officers, however, saw the glow increase in intensity and summoned the Librarian of Congress, George Watterson, to the Capitol. Watterson and the police discovered a fire on the upper level of the library. Representatives
Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and
Sam Houston of Tennessee arrived at the Capitol along with Everett to assist in fighting the growing blaze. Firefighters arrived and extinguished the blaze before it spread to the ceiling and other sections of the Capitol. After the smoke settled, firefighters determined the cause of the fire was an unattended candle. Damage was not as extensive as the August 1814 inferno, when the British destroyed the Capitol (and most of official Washington, D.C.). Listed among those items lost in the fire were duplicate copies of books and an expensive rug. This was the second blaze in roughly a decade and it prompted Congress to request Architect of the Capitol Charles Bulfinch to investigate flame retardant materials for the library and the Capitol as a whole.
One of the first efforts by the House of Representatives to preserve its records
June 06, 1900
On this date, the House of Representatives took its first step toward the longterm preservation of its records, by providing funding for document storage in a general appropriations bill. The new
Clerk of the House, former Congressman
Alexander McDowell of Pennsylvania, initiated the change. On January 23, 1899, McDowell presented a plaintive letter from file clerk Walter French detailing the immediate need for more and better storage space for the files of the House (H. Doc. 170, 55th Cong., 3rd Sess.) “The extreme heat in summer from the iron roof and the dampness in winter from the condensation of hot air coming against the cold iron of the roof render the place unfit for documents of such value,” French explained. “Portions of the shelving in the attic are of wood, and in the event of fire, would be entirely inaccessible as this attic can only be reached through this office and up three flights of narrow stairs.” However, Congress adjourned early and no action was taken to correct the storage deficiencies. On March 27, 1900, McDowell again presented the letter requesting more storage (H. Doc. 536, 56th Cong., 1st sess. [1900]). This time Congress acted swiftly, and the Appropriations Act included a provision for $1,500 for the transfer of inactive records to the Librarian of Congress. In 1901, 5,502 bound volumes of journals, miscellaneous documents, executive documents, bills, reports, committee books, and records of the Office of the Clerk from the
1st to 56th Congresses (1789–1901) were sent to the Library of Congress.
Early efforts to preserve the records of the House of Representatives
February 21, 1910
On this date in the
61st Congress (1909–1911), the House allocated $2,500 “for the better preservation of early files of the House” by means of H. Res. 403. The appropriation was accompanied by House Report No. 677, written by Massachusetts Congressman
Joseph Francis O’Connell of the Committee on Accounts, describing the rapidly deteriorating condition of House records still kept in the Capitol’s attic. The space contained hundreds of bundles of the earliest records, which were piled to the ceiling in a narrow passageway. The papers were “neglected and decaying.” The report called for additional funding to classify and rejacket these materials, which included original bills and amendments, correspondence, memorials of state and territorial legislatures, petitions, and reports. The records covered “a variety of subjects and in themselves [furnish] a documentary history of some of the most important events in our history.” The report described the circumstances of a letter from Martha Washington to Congress consenting to the burial of President
George Washington in the Capitol crypt. The letter had been cut from one of the bound volumes of original documents, but was later recovered. The committee recommended the deposit of all original papers and letters of historical value with the Librarian of Congress. After this initial transfer, the Librarian continued to accept periodic deposits from the House, but was eager for an alternative storage space. More than 40 years later, House records were transferred from the Library of Congress to the National Archives building and today are cared for by the
Clerk of the House’s official archival staff.
The House Committee on the Library’s report on the condition of House Records
June 01, 1937
On this date, the House Committee on the Library recommended the “Transfer of Certain Records of House of Representatives to National Archives” (H. Rpt. No. 917, 75th Cong., 1st sess.) The report contained a comprehensive survey of the conditions of the papers of the House by the National Archives, emphasizing the disorderly state of the records and their rapid deterioration.
Clerk of the House
South Trimble opposed the transfer on the grounds that records did not have “historical interest” and the transfer “would serve no useful purpose, would be an unnecessary expense, and would make [the records] less accessible to the House.” As a result, the records remained in three locations in the Library of Congress, eight locations in the Capitol, and one depository in the Old House Building (now Cannon) until 1946, when noncurrent House records came under the purview of the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress. The committee concluded, “It would appear that the best interests of the Government and the People of the United States would be served by the preservation of the noncurrent records of the Senate and House in one centralized place that provides the best facilities available” (S. Rpt. 1011, 79th Cong., 2nd. sess.). The committee’s deliberations were implemented in the landmark Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946. Section 140 (a)-(b) of the act provided for the physical transfer to the National Archives of the records of the first 76 Congresses (7,500 cubic feet of records), as well as the continuing transfer of committee records at the close of each Congress. The House retains ownership of its records and access to them is subject to House rules.
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