Title:
E.E. Myers' carpenter's rule
Description:
Silver and ivory rule bearing the inscription: E.E. Myers, Architect, Detroit, Michigan.
Description:
Historical Note: This carpenter's rule was given to Mr. G.W. Lacy by E.E. Myers, architect of the Texas State Capitol. In 1885, G.W. Lacy and two other men, W.H. Westfall and N.L. Norton, gave the state of Texas enough granite from Granite Mountain to build the statehouse. Before the Capitol was completed, 15,700 carloads of granite weighing more than 50,000 tons had been taken from the mountain to Austin by railroad. G.W. Lacy bought the mountain in 1874. (Source: Fort-Worth Star Telegram, January or February 10, 1971, and The Menard News and Messenger, July 25, 1963.) Austin's first Capitol was built of Bastrop plank lumber on a hilltop west of Congress Avenue. The next Capitol in Austin was located at Capitol Square and completed in 1853. When this Greek Revival structure burned in late 1881, plans were already underway for a new Capitol. The Texas State Capitol was designed by architect Elijah E. Myers, architect of the Michigan and Colorado Capitols, who won a nationwide design competition for the project in 1881. Elijah E. Myers was born on December 22, 1832, in Philadelphia. He studied for the bar but left school to become a carpenter and joiner; he may have studied architecture at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Myers was also said to have been employed by the construction department for the United States Army during the Civil War. In 1871 he moved to Detroit, Michigan, where he established a successful practice. In 1881, under the pseudonym Tuebor, he won the competition for the best design for the new state Capitol to be built in Austin, Texas. He was hired as the project's architect for $12,000. Myers made several major revisions of his original plans, including a change from a square dome to a round one. However, his slow follow-up and his feigned and psychosomatic illnesses made him very difficult to deal with. The Capitol Board, which was overseeing the project, fired him in 1886, two years before the Capitol was completed. Gustav Wilke completed the project using Myers's plans. Extensive renovations of the Texas Capitol were undertaken in the late 1980s, with much attention given to Myers's plans. He died at his home in Detroit on March 5, 1909, and was survived by his wife and four children.
Identifier:
ATF0206
Item identifier:
ATF0206
Collection:
Artifacts collection
Date range of creation:
1870 to 1885
Source:
Texas State Library and Archives Commission, 1977/041
Container information:
Artifact Box 0047
Subject:
Texas State Capitol (Austin, Tex.)
Subject:
Myers, Elijah E., 1832-1909
Type:
Image
Type:
Woodworking Tools and Equipment
Type:
Rule, Carpenter's
Medium:
Wood (plant material)
Medium:
Metal
Medium:
Organic material
Citation information:
ATF0206, Artifacts collection. Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Copyright information:
This image is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States. The Item and its design depicted in this image may be protected by copyright, patents, trademarks, or other related rights. You are free to use this image in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. Unless expressly stated otherwise, Texas State Library and Archives Commission makes no warranties about the Item and cannot guarantee the accuracy of this Rights Statement. You are responsible for your own use. Please contact the Texas State Library and Archives Commission for more information. You may need to obtain other permissions for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy or moral rights may limit how you may use the material.
Size or duration:
open: 24 in x 0.25 in; folded: 6.5 in x 0.5 in
Language:
English