Historian Jim McKee who writes a column in the Lincoln Journal Star every week provided the program at Kiwanis today. He spoke on “Nebraska Capitols” by tracing the buildings that have housed our Library & Seal from the 1854 Nebraska Territory building in Omaha to the present. The first State Capitol in Lincoln was constructed of native limestone between 1867 and 1868 following Nebraska becoming the 37th State in 1867. The 2nd Capitol was finished in 1888 and construction of the current Capitol designed by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue was begun in 1922. Mr. McKee showed pictures and told of many little know features of our current Capitol. As a youngster my parents pointed out to me a “cupola” on top of a barn near Garland that supposedly had come from the top of the 1888 building. Pictures of the barn have been published, and it did look very much like the “real thing”. However, after all these years, I learned from Jim McKee today that it was all a sham. He says that if you look at pictures carefully you can detect the differences. It was a most interesting program and I never miss reading his column, but learning the truth about the cupalo was something counter to what I had believed most of my life. I wonder if there are other “truths” that should be questioned or should sleeping dogs be let lie.
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