Behind a wall in Rhode Island's State House, a wheel of fortune

By Jennifer Bogdan


Journal State House Bureau Posted Sep. 21, 2015 @ 11:15 pm

PROVIDENCE — For decades, hidden in a wall tucked between the State House's central data center and the lawmakers who oversee the state's finances has been a century-old piece of the building's original ventilation system.

Two weeks ago construction crews were tracing a maze of wires and preparing to knock out a wall in the House Finance Committee's basement hearing room, undergoing its first renovations in more than 30 years. They got a surprise when hammers uncovered a large, dusty steel wheel still mounted to the wall.

Measuring more than five feet in diameter, the wheel once ran with a belt that helped to crank a large fan functioning as the State's House's original ventilation system.