The Recovery

The recovery began immediately after the fire. It took 31 days to clear the debris from the dome/roof area. This included removing burned timber framing and scaffold, the bell, the destroyed HVAC system, and debris. A weather tight box or "bunker" was built and secured for winter.

All of the 680 artifacts (furniture, artwork, framed historic maps, paper and books, metals, glass and textiles) had to be dried, assessed for damage, estimated for repair, cleaned, inventoried, and carefully packed to save them. Work began on the items that needed repair immediately. This is an ongoing process.

For two months the staff daily moved every shutter and door in the building to prevent warping. There are 46 windows in Old Capitol with four shutters each for a total of 184 shutters. There are 24 doors on the first floor and 12 on the second.

It was imperative to gain control of the relative humidity, temperature, and ventilation for the interior of the building as soon as possible. Once the debris was removed, temporary equipment had to be installed. Daily monitoring of the humidity and temperature in the building is essential to the drying process which should be done slowly and methodically. This is still an ongoing process. Because the exterior walls are limestone, the interior walls are brick and the floors are concrete on all levels, it could take as long as one year for the building to dry completely.