…was built in 1963 as a new home for the Highway Department. The Highway Department moved out onto Coliseum Boulevard circa 1990, as part of a scheme to convert the then 30-year old building into a home for the State Legislature. Ergo, the old structure was extensively remodeled in 1991, and our Legislators “temporarily” moved into their new offices. They’ve been there for almost twenty years now, but it must be temporary because our State Constitution says the Legislature shall meet in the Capitol, where its real chambers are. The Fob James/Dr Bronner plan of 1980 was to use the chambers in the Capitol, but provide Legislative offices and hearing rooms in their new “Capitol Annex”. Their plan was abandoned and conversion of the Highway Building was substituted a decade later.

Periodically, the powers forget that the adjacent parking lot functions as a retention pond, and they add a bottom level door to the State House on that side, and thus flood the basement and the tunnel. Oh, well…

-Charles Humphries