Supreme Court Chambers

By Tamra Gredell

My favorite part of the State Capitol tour was the Iowa Supreme Court Chambers. The most impressive piece of work was the judges’ bench. This piece was so elaborately carved it is unbelievable that someone could carve it by hand, not to mention the man who carved the panels of the bench was just 19. The intricate detail is something to be admired.

When our tour guide was telling the story of the judges’ bench I was stunned when she said that when four more judges were added to the Supreme Court they needed to extend the judges’ bench, instead of replacing the bend they searched for the man that carved the original bench. When they found him 60 or so years after he carved the original bench he agreed to add more panels to the judges’ bench. When looking at the judges’ bench there is no difference between the part carved when the man was 19 and the part that was carved so many years later.

The other fact I found interesting about the Supreme Court Chambers was that there are five sleeping chambers behind the court chambers intended for the judges to stay overnight because their homes were so far away. I thought it was smart of the builders to think of that when building the State Capitol Building, the Supreme Court judges were probably appreciative too.

I thought it was fascinating that we were able to go into the Governor’s office. I would think it would be a personal space with many important documents and other various important government things. Instead his office was wide open to the public, I wondered how the Governor felt about exposing his office to the public? I know I wouldn’t like it if random people walked through my office every day, guess that’s part of being the Governor.

I have never toured the State Capital before and I learned many interesting things, overall I thought this was a great experience.