Lansing - a city in the United States, the capital of the state of Michigan, on the Grand River (flowing into Lake Michigan). Together with East Lansing, it forms a city band.
Lansing is located in Ingham County, south-central Michigan at the
mouth of the Red Cedar River and the Grand River. The landscape is flat,
sparsely wooded and dominated by agriculture.
Lansing is the only
capital city in the United States that is not the seat of the county in
which it is located.
The city center is structured like a chess
board, the cityscape is defined by a few skyscrapers and a financial
district.
The Ottawa, Potawatomi and Ojibway (Anishinabe) tribes originally
lived in the Lansing area. In 1847, Michigan's capital was moved from
Detroit to the wild interior. The place was originally called Michigan,
Michigan and then renamed Lansing, Michigan after the ancestry of many
of the Lansing, New York settlers. At that time there was only a log
house and a sawmill on the site. After the establishment of the village
in 1857 the city rights were granted.
Ransom Eli Olds and Frank
G. Clark founded an automobile plant and built the first Oldsmobile. The
plant still exists today as General Motors' Lansing Grand River
Assembly.
The Michigan State Capitol is the seat of the Michigan Legislature,
the legislature of the US state of Michigan. It is also the official
residence of the governor and the lieutenant governor. The Michigan
legislature is bicameral (as in all states except Nebraska). These two
chambers are the Michigan House of Representatives (110 members) and the
Michigan Senate (38 members). On April 30, 2020, the Capitol building
was stormed by armed right-wing protesters protesting Gov. Gretchen
Whitmer's actions to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
First Capitol
The first US Capitol was in Detroit, then the capital of Michigan. It
existed from the time Michigan became a state (1837) until the
construction of the second Capitol in the new capital, Lansing (1848).
It was built in the Greek Revival style. In the center was a 42 m high
tower. In 1837 it cost $24,500 to build. Converted to 2011, that would
be $540,000. After Parliament moved to Lansing, the first Capitol was
converted into a public school. It was the only high school in Detroit
at the time and remained so until a fire in 1893.
Second Capitol
The second Capitol was built in Lansing from 1847 to 1848. It had been a
wish of many people and the government to move Parliament away from the
Canadian border as Canada was still part of Britain. Shortlisted for the
new capital were: Ann Arbor, Jackson and Grand Rapids. It was a simple
two-story timber-frame structure with green-painted shutters and a small
pewter dome. The cost of construction in 1847 was about $23,000.
Converted to 2011, that would be about $540,000. At the dedication of
what is now the State Capitol, it was sold and converted into a
corporation until it was destroyed in a fire in 1882.
Third and
Present Capitol
In the early 1870s, Governor Henry P. Baldwin asked
the legislature to fund a new state capitol. Construction began in 1873
at a cost of $1.2 million. Converted to 2011, that would be US$ 22
million. Elijah E. Myers was chosen as the architect. He had his own
design, which he called Tuebor (in English: I defend). Myers used two
side wings and a large central dome. He later applied the design to the
state capitols of Colorado and Texas. Like all state capitols built
after the Civil War, this capitol is built to be fire and war resistant.
The current Capitol has four floors with a main entrance on the ground
floor and two grand staircases leading to the top floor. It measures
83.40 m in width, 81.30 m in height and 128.00 m in length.
On
the first floor, visitors can see the dome with several images. There is
also a huge clock hanging there, the so-called master clock. The second
floor contains the governor's office and a gallery featuring all of
Michigan's governors. The third floor houses the two chambers of the
legislature, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Sessions are
recorded by government-access television.
On April 30, 2020,
hundreds of right-wing demonstrators, some armed with weapons of war and
masked, stormed the Capitol while discussions were being held there on
measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Numerous members of right-wing
militias were among the attackers. The crowd tried in vain to enter the
chamber and threatened Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. This was preceded by calls
from President Donald Trump to protest the governor's strict measures;
he tweeted u. a. "liberated Michigan". Some observers saw these calls as
an attempt to incite a riot, such as the attack on the Capitol in
Washington, D.C. Only a few months later plans by a militia to attack
the Capitol were uncovered again. The group Wolverine Watchmen
originally planned to take the Capitol and take hostages, but then
switched to the plan to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer. Some of these
individuals took part in the events of April 30th.
Trivia
Anyone, including visitors, is permitted to carry firearms inside the
building.
African World Museum
R.E. Olds Transportation Museum, featuring
the first 1897 Oldsmobile
WJ Beal Botanical Garden, oldest of its
kind in the US from 1873
Lansing is the seat of the Lansing Diocese.
Michigan Hall of Justice, seat of the Michigan Supreme Court.
Capital Bank Tower is one of the city's 31 entries on the NRHP.
The Michigan State Capitol is a National Historic Landmark in Lansing.
The city has 31 structures and sites listed on the National Register of
Historic Places (NRHP) as of November 6, 2018.
Michigan State University is located on the Red Cedar River in East
Lansing.
She has one of the best wrestling teams in the US.
John Munroe Longyear (1850–1922), timber builder
Ray Stannard
Baker (1870–1946), author and journalist
Claude E Cady (1878–1953),
politician
Roy D. Chapin (1880–1936), entrepreneur and politician
Eric DeLamarter (1880–1953), composer
Carl Benton Reid (1893–1973),
actor
Frederic C. Lane (1900–1984), economic historian (Republic of
Venice)
Fred Alderman (1905–1998), sprinter and Olympic gold medalist
Harold R Collier (1915–2006), politician
Big Nick Nicholas
(1922–1997), jazz musician
Edward George Farhat (1924–2003),
professional wrestler
Bethany Beardslee (born 1927), concert and
opera singer
Suzanne Toolan (born 1927), teacher, musician and
composer
Jonathan Farwell (born 1932), film actor
J. Hunter Holly
(1932–1982), science fiction writer
Tony Earl (1936–2023), politician
Dick Hyde (1936–2019), jazz and studio musician
Burt Reynolds
(1936–2018), film actor
Gary Starkweather (1938–2019), engineer and
inventor
Bob Kindred (1940–2016), jazz musician
Alexei Panshin
(1940–2022), science fiction writer and critic
Lebbeus Woods
(1940–2012), architect and university lecturer
Donald Keck (born
1941), physicist and fiber optics pioneer
David N. Cutler (born
1942), software engineer
Susan Montgomery (born 1943), mathematician
Nancy H. Rogers (born 1948), lawyer and politician
Timothy Patrick
Barrus (born 1950), writer
Paul Gentilozzi (* 1950), racing driver
and racing team owner
John Hughes (1950–2009), film director,
producer and screenwriter
Thom Hartmann (born 1951), journalist,
author and radio host
Andrew Beal (born 1952), entrepreneur
Steven
Seagal (born 1952), film actor
Cary Adgate (born 1953), alpine skier
William Malone (born 1953), director of horror films
Barbara de Koy
(born 1954), actress
Tom Price (born 1954), politician
Alice Cook
(born 1955), figure skater
Terry Date (born 1956), music producer
John Adrian Delaney (born 1956), politician
Timothy Busfield (born
1957), actor
Magic Johnson (born 1959), basketball player
Lori
Garver (b. 1961), Deputy Chief of NASA
Kelly Miller (born 1963), ice
hockey player and coach
Ioannis Koufis (born 1965), American-Greek
ice hockey player
Kevin Miller (born 1965), ice hockey player
Bion
Tsang (born 1967), cellist
Tim Kane (born 1968), military officer,
economist and publicist
Kip Miller (born 1969), ice hockey player
Matthew Lillard (born 1970), actor
Tommie Boyd (born 1971), football
player
Gretchen Whitmer (born 1971), politician
Susan May Pratt
(born 1974), actress
Ryan Devlin (born 1980), actor
Lawrence
Leathers (1981–2019), jazz musician (drums)
Marcus Taylor (born
1981), basketball player
Corey Potter (born 1984), ice hockey player
Drew Stanton (born 1984), football player
Abigail Mason (born 1989),
theater, film and musical actress
Ra'Shede Hageman (born 1990),
football player
Josh Lambo (born 1990), soccer player and American
football player
Madison Hubbell (born 1991), ice dancer
Ahney Her
(born 1992), actress
Billy Strings (born 1992), musician
Denzel
Valentine (born 1993), basketball player
Taylor Moton (born 1994),
football player
Chioma Onyekwere (born 1994), Nigerian discus thrower
and shot putter