Where did Justice go?

Hello, all!

Still hot but we're still making progress down on the square.

As they told us looks like it is shaping up to be a busy week despite the heat.  Yesterday and today there were several groups of workman.

Monday morning when I arrived the Sheriff and a Deputy had Church Street (East side of the square) blocked off on the north and south ends.  in the middle of the street was a big flat bed 18-wheeler who was off loading large rectangular bundles of what looks like styrofoam material and some other materials that are further roofing supplies.  There was a lot of it.  It took up most of the curbside parking on the east side.  They had not told me about that and I felt sure I would hear about it but later in the day a fork lift manuevered it all into two rows along the curb.  So we still have 1/2 of the stretch of parking anyway.

No roofing crew yet but they should begin this week.  With that the materials will be lifted up then onto the roof.  We will be increasing the R factor with this roof design and be using a SECO (stimulus) grant to help pay for this part of the project.

All day yesterday and today another crew has been working next to the east side of the building and on top in the same area.  There is a man on the ground in some kind of vehicle sorta like a cross between a fork lift and a front end loader.  He sits in a little cage on the side and manuevers it.  There a double arm like a bucket on a front end loader but it has the two teeth on the front like a fork lift.

The crew is removing the capstones along the top of the parapet.

Modern building codes would require that there be a moisture barrier underneath the top course.  The top course is the last layer of stone in this case that sits atop the wall.  Actually there is an inner wall of brick and the layer which in this case is limestone.  It was common in the day that the workman would dispose of their rubble (broken bricks) into the cavity between.

Today there would be some sort of barrier (tar paper at least) to carry the water that might get through the seams between the capstones to the outside.  In the courthouse, it is open all the way down.  So if water gets between the capstones, it goes into the wall.

We have for a long time had water coming from around the windows causing the plaster on our walls to spall.  The plaster gets wet underneath and then pops up like a bubble.  Then it usually dries to a powder and then proceeds to fall off in bits or sometimes in chunks.  You can knock it off and replaster but the same thing happens again.

So these guys are getting ready to try to cure this problem.  They are now removing the course of capstones around the top of the parapet one by one and lifting them to the ground and stacking them.  This is no small feat in and of it self as each one of these weighs about 500 pounds.  The Project Manager tells me they weigh about 100 pounds per linier foot.  I thought they would re-use what they could but apparently not.

Here that crew is at work:

They say the honing crew will be here tomorrow and start smoothing the face of the limestone panels.  A long time ago, the staining on the exterior was removed by sandblasting the face of the stone.  Though it may have been state of art at the time the face of the stones are pitted and wavy.  The process opened the face of the limestone to promote the staining you can now see.  This has to be better for the stone but you always have to still wonder about this state of the art process in several years.  We will still have to periodically clean it in some fashion to preserve the finish.

The spandrels that were cleaned up are on the way back.  Three of them are here and will go up sometime this week.  They are truly beautiful.  Their caretaker has strengthened them and sealed the back of them to protect them from deteriation. 

Here's one of them:

They have stripped off the gray paint, cleaned them up, polished them, and strengthed the reverse.

But where did justice go?

When the 1886 courthouse was torn down in the opening moments of 1939, it occurred at the end of a world wide depression so great that it had its own name.  Experience taught that generation not to throw anything away before you use it or wear it out.  That courthouse was brought down in a matter of moments by bulldozers, I am told, pulling cables wrapped around it.  The stone was recyled and much of it is still in use today.  Some went to build the old City Hall/Fire Stations, some went to the country to build a cabin, some went to build part of the City's water treatment plant on the parade grounds of Fort Richardson, and others to be used as part of other homes.  The bell is still located on the square but what happened to Lady Liberty.

Lady Liberty was often used in 19th century in many places but often on court buildings.  Lady Liberty is a symbol of the Greek and Roman goddess of Justice.
     And thus she stood overlooking the main entrance (south) examining those who entered.  In some instances, she appears blindfolded so she cannot see those before her and in some cases she is not so, it could be said, she can see those who stand before for who they are.  In most instances she holds the Scales of Justice to measure the evidence presented and a sword for the swift administration of her justice.

Somehow when Lady Justice came down off of the uppermost height of the 1886 courthouse, she disappeared.  A number of us have puzzled over her fate through the years.  One woman has told about seeing her later.  She said as a young girl she saw her stored in  the old Commissary Building at Fort Richardson.  She said when she saw she still had what she was told were bullet holes placed there by cowboys on a Saturday night who had a bit too much of ol' Who Hit John.  But from there she disappeared and no one seemed to know where she went.

Several years ago in an article in the newspaper, I was quoted as saying I was still trying to find out what happened to her.  Fast forward a couple of weeks to a Friday night home football game and a fellows says to me, "I read you were looking for Lady Jusice."  I assured him that I was and he told me she went in a scrap drive in WWII.  He was a boy at the time and personnaly saw her on a a scrap there on the square.  So she did her part for the cause perhaps ending up in a bomb or shell casings or the wall of a tank defending our nation.

So now you know, too.

Here she is probably after having been just removed from the 1886 courthouse.   The Scales are gone from her left hand, her right hand still in place to hold the sword gone, and apparently she wore no blindfold.

Till next time.