Then and Now: January 2012

This Month's Statehouse Photo

The photo in January's magazine shows the glass dome in the old Florida Captiol, now referred to as the Florida Historic Capitol Museum. The building, completed in 1845, was replaced by the modern, 25-story capitol tower in Tallahassee in the 1970s. The historic building is on the National Register of Historic Places. Tallahassee has been Florida's capital since 1824. Log cabins were the original seat of government. The historic building was added to and modified over the years, and nearly faced demolition when the new capitol building was constructed. It was saved from the wrecking ball and was restored to how it looked in 1920. 

25 Years Ago

Articles from the January 1987 issue of State Legislatures:

BUDGETING WITHOUT HARD NUMBERS
“Lawmakers grappling with state budgets in 1987 are in for a lot of guesswork. Federal tax reform, to a large degree, is the culprit.”

AS RADON ISSUE HEATS UP, GOVERNMENT RESPONDS
“Radon, a colorless, odorless, cancer-causing gas, is fast becoming one of the country’s most serious environmental concerns.”

THE DONOR DILEMMA
“Medical technology has taken the transplantation of human organs beyond the realm of experiment to nearly routine.”
 

Did You Know?

Inside the Colorado Capitol you will find a rare, rose-colored onyx (also known as Beulah red marble) lining the columns and corridors. In fact, it was so rare that the Capitol builders used up the entire limited supply on the building. The quarry, in Beulah, Colo., has become a housing development.

—From “A Celebration of State Capitols,” by Richard Gibson