Saving historic U.S. House building will cost millions

The Cannon House Office Building on Independence Avenue in Washington, D.C.(Photo: Denny Gainer, USA TODAY)WASHINGTON — Contractors have begun a nearly $800 million renovation of a 107-year-old building across the street from the U.S. Capitol that was the first House office building.Work started this month to save the crumbling Cannon House Office Building, completed in 1908 to give members of the House offices to work from, instead of their desks on the House floor.It is named for a cigar-chomping tyrant of a House speaker who wielded power far beyond the dreams of any modern leader.In the century since Joe Cannon ruled the House with an iron fist, the clout of the House speaker's office and the structural integrity of the building that bears his name have both deteriorated greatly.Today, stone is falling from the building's exterior columns, plaster is dropping from the ceiling, corroded pipes are bursting, and the elegant Cannon Caucus Room is flooding when it rains."It's in need of a complete renewal," said Bill Weidemeyer, an engineer and superintendent of House Office Buildings. He told stories of a House member who had to work in his winter coat because the heating system no longer worked in his office and of congressional aides who formed a "bucket brigade" to catch the water from leaky pipes.Preparation work is underway for a 10-year, $753 million renovation of the building, said Stephen Ayers, the current architect of the U.S. Capitol.The work to renew the building will include restoring exterior stone, interior marble flooring, ornamental plaster and architectural woodwork and trim. The building's major systems — heating, air-conditioning, electrical, water, telecommunications and fire protection — will be replaced.House members will continue to work in Cannon while the building is being renovated, but some will have to move temporarily to other buildings until their offices are done. The work will be done in five phases ending in November 2024, Weidemeyer said.The renovations will remove some of the building's quirky charms. For instance, new elevators will be installed that stop at every floor, including the fifth. Currently, most elevators stop at the fourth floor. Freshman members of Congress routinely get stuck in the fifth-floor offices that nobody else wants and that few tourists can find.In its 100-plus years, the Cannon building has housed the offices of 16 speakers of the House and four future presidents: John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.It also provided an office for the first woman ever elected to Congress: Jeannette Rankin, a suffragist from Montana who was elected in 1916 and lost her first bid for re-election in 1918 for voting against U.S. entry into World War I. She made a comeback 22 years later when she was elected to Congress in 1940 and voted against U.S. entry into World War II."The building has had a really rich cast of characters," House Historian Matt Wasniewski said.Few were more notorious than Cannon himself. When the Illinois Republican walked the halls as speaker in the early 1900s, he had sole discretion to decide which member of Congress would serve on what committee, regardless of the lawmaker's party. He made himself chairman of the Rules Committee — which controls which bills and amendments get voted on — grabbed power from other committee chairmen, and maintained his No. 1 position through four consecutive sessions.Wasniewski said there are letters from House members addressed to "Uncle Joe" pleading for coveted committee assignments.When a constituent wrote to Cannon to ask the speaker to send him a copy of the House rules, Cannon send the man "an autographed picture of Uncle Joe," the historian said.Congress voted to name the building for Cannon in 1962, 36 years after his death.Europe anti-terrorism raids lead to dozens of arrestsJan 16, 2015