a Little More on the Guard who was Killed..
http://www.sj-r.com/Sections/News/Stories/35756.asp
Danger wasn't always close
By TOBY ECKERT
Former State Journal-Register staff writer Toby Eckert interviewed Statehouse security guard Bill Wozniak for the story that follows, which was published Sunday, Aug. 16, 1987.
Eckert, now a reporter for Copley News Service in Washington, D.C., said he met Wozniak when Eckert wandered into the Statehouse one night. (The building has since been closed to the public after regular working hours.) Wozniak showed Eckert around the Capitol, which gave Eckert the idea for this story.
It's 9 o'clock on a Friday night. Most people are out on the town or at home, relaxing after a long week of work.
But Bill Wozniak is standing in the gallery of the state Senate chamber with a family of three from Lansing, Mich. "It's clean now," Wozniak tells them, pointing down to the empty desks on the darkened Senate floor. "When they're in session, you wouldn't believe the stacks of paper."
It might not be in the job description, but the miniature tour is very much a part of Wozniak's job as a night guard at the Capitol. The first floor of the Statehouse is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year - and when after-hours tourists drop in during Wozniak's shift, he is prepared.
Although he has been on the job only about four or five months, Wozniak is well versed in the facts and myths of the ornate 99-year-old Statehouse.
He tells of the four crystal chandeliers in the House chamber: They were donated from Austria and weigh 1,000 pounds each. He tells of the “lost room,” a Senate hearing room on the fourth floor that was somehow sealed up during construction and not discovered until the 1960s, when some electricians were drilling for wires in the ceiling below.
Wozniak also is something of an authority on the many works of art in the building. Looking up at a 40-foot mural depicting explorer George Rogers Clark meeting with Illinois Indians at Kaskaskia (an event historians say never took place), Wozniak notes:
“It took the artist, Gustav Fuchs, two years to paint it. And it cost $2,000. One of the mountain men standing in the foreground is supposed to be Daniel Boone.”
Wozniak also is fond of passing on a myth about a painting hanging near the building’s north entrance. The painting depicts several youngsters on a raft floating by a mill near New Salem. Legend has it that one of the nondescript figures on the raft is none other than young Abe Lincoln, Wozniak says.
While most people who drop in on the Capitol at night can expect at least a brief tour of the first floor, very few are treated to the deluxe tour the family from Lansing got.
“We’re not accustomed to doing that for everyone,” Wozniak explains. Only those who might not have a chance to see the Statehouse again are taken beyond the first floor.
“If we feel that there is enough security around and it’s real quiet, we try to accommodate them,” Wozniak said. “We try to let them have something to remember Illinois by.”
As for those who live closer to Springfield, “We feel that it wouldn’t be too hard (for them) to drive down some other time,” he says.
Wozniak said the most popular attraction for night visitors is the newly cleaned and lighted Capitol dome. “The first thing they do when they get to the middle is look up, and they’re in awe,” he said. “They say it’s really miraculous.”
He likes to point out to visitors how bad the dome looked before it was cleaned. “It was so black and sooty you couldn’t even see the state seal,” he says.
Wozniak, 34, said he gained his knowledge of the Statehouse from legislators, tour guides, historical literature and the other guards. “I just kind of fit everything together and it works out pretty good,” he said.
He also picked up some lore when he worked as a guard at New Salem State Historic Site.
Wozniak describes himself as “a city boy turned country.” He came to Illinois from Detroit 17 years ago. “I was actually on my way to California and I never got past Illinois,” he said.
On his way out West, he said, he stopped to visit an aunt and uncle who lived near Petersburg and “I just never left because I liked it so much. You’re in a day-to-day, dog-eat-dog world in the big city. I needed a change.”
Wozniak said he visits Detroit every once in a while. Walking down the street is like “walking down a demilitarized zone in Vietnam,” he said.
“Down here, you’d try to help somebody. Up there, you’d get shot,” he said.
As if on cue, a woman walked up to Wozniak’s post at the information desk and asked for directions.
“I’m really surprised you can walk right in here,” she said.
