Keeper of the Bronze

Door polisher shines on job

Work at Capitol a point of pride

Richard Adcock has spent thousands of hours polishing the bronze doors of the state Capitol since he took on the chore seven years ago.
Richard Adcock has spent thousands of hours polishing the bronze doors of the state Capitol since he took on the chore seven years ago.

As long as there are air and water and tourists with sweaty hands, Arkansas will need Richard Adcock -- or someone like him.

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Flags are reflected in the fingerprint-covered bronze doors at the state Capitol. The doors, purchased more than a century ago for $10,000, are insured for $500,000.

For the past seven years, Adcock, a 52-year-old night maintenance worker, has grabbed a few cotton towels, a box of metal polish wipes and a ladder and headed to the top of the Capitol steps, where three sets of shiny bronze doors perpetually deteriorate.

The Little Rock native scrubs fingerprints, rain streaks and discolored metal away -- leaving a golden surface that reflects the Arkansas and American flags that fly behind him.

His mind doesn't wander. He doesn't listen to music. He says he's focused on refining his technique.

"I never would have thought I could have done this. When I first started, I thought 'This is just impossible. This is an exercise in futility -- that's what this is,'" he said. "But with enough patience and enough will to succeed and the work ethic, I thought 'I can do this. I really can.'"

He starts his shift around 4 p.m. and spends about three hours buffing the doors -- sometimes on his hands and knees and sometimes on a ladder -- before heading inside to work on interior brass and bronze, bathrooms, the cafeteria and the basement. He leaves the Capitol after midnight.

After 17 years on the job, he earns $28,219.21 per year.

In total, Adcock has devoted more than 5,200 hours of his life preserving 4,200 square feet of bronze.

If he didn't do the job properly each day, the 10-foot-tall doors would turn the same color green as the Statue of Liberty. Bronze, a mix of tin and copper, naturally corrodes when exposed to the elements.

David Ware, the Capitol historian, said there were several times the doors were poorly maintained.

"During the 1920s and early '30s, funds were short and not just after the Great Depression begins in 1929," he said. "Arkansas as a state historically did not raise that much money. So government did not mess around. Secretaries of state had to make do with very small maintenance budgets."

C.G. "Crip" Hall, elected secretary of state in 1937, used the available money well and looked for other sources of income, Ware said. Works Progress Administration employees improved parts of the Capitol during Hall's near quarter-century of service.

After he left office in 1961, the condition eroded. And in the 1970s and 1980s, there was a push to modernize the building. But the decorative ornaments and fixtures -- which require meticulous maintenance -- were neglected.

Ware said it wasn't until the past 15 years or so that there was a push to restore the building to its original condition -- and eventually to keep the doors polished.

Adcock said polishing the doors is an honor.

"I've gotten a lot of good comments from people from as far away as Germany," he said. "Even when I first started -- and compliments don't get much higher than this -- [President George W. Bush's labor secretary, Elaine Chao] said she wished the doors in Washington, D.C., looked as beautiful as here."

Adcock can recall the precise day that he became a Capitol employee -- May 21, 1998.

Before starting work with the secretary of state's office, Adcock worked in a hospital, which he said was far less fulfilling.

At first, he focused on bathroom and office cleaning.

He was promoted to door polishing after 10 years.

"I love it. It's just my way of giving back. Little Rock and Arkansas as a whole -- all 75 counties -- have been great to me," he said. "I've learned how to really focus, zoom in on what I'm doing and really kind of concentrate on the task at hand."

The state bought the six 1,300 pound doors in 1911 for $10,000 from Tiffany Studios in New York. They're insured for $500,000 today.

Adcock's predecessor used an electric buffer to shine the bronze, but he says that could harm the doors. He likes to do the work by hand.

"I prefer to do it like this because I know my hands can't generate the revolutions per minute that the electric buffer can, so there's no chance of me burning them," he said. "It's not the quantity, but the quality that matters."

Ware said Adcock is aware of the history of the building like almost no one else.

"When people ask me about people I work with taking pride in the building, Richard is the first person who comes to mind, because he takes it very personally when people treat the building with respect -- or don't," Ware said.

"Richard is a very powerful reminder of the care that has to be taken with a building like this."

Metro on 07/04/2015

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