CHEYENNE - Sen. Jayne Mockler, D-Cheyenne, has a passionate interest in the State Capitol - for good reason.

She spent part of her childhood in a house that once stood where the cornerstone of the Herschler State Office Building is now. She used to play in the Capitol Building with her brothers and with her cousins when they came to the capital city. They would go up to the dome and through passages that allowed them to look down on the House and Senate chambers.

"At that time there was a restaurant in the basement. You could go anywhere you wanted to," Mockler said.

During her high school years she served as a legislative page and receptionist. Her grandfather, uncle and father all served in the Wyoming Legislature as Republicans from Fremont County.

After serving 16 years in the House and Senate, Mockler, 50, is not seeking re-election this year. Instead, she will be a candidate for mayor of Cheyenne.

She has been co-chairing the Select Committee on Legislative Facilities, an assignment that brings her to the Capitol Building frequently to oversee selection of art for the chambers, reframing historic paintings and various other projects and upgrades.

The restaurant, meanwhile, is long gone, the space now occupied by state offices.

The dome has been closed to the public for years because the narrow, winding staircase is a safety hazard.

Mockler wants to buff up the old building and restore it to its original, historic state.

Rep. Pete Illoway, R-Cheyenne and co-chairman of the select committee, said he also is passionate about the Capitol Building - but not quite to the same degree as Mockler.

"It's a wonderful building, and we're going to have to get in there and do some things to make it functional," Illoway said.

The middle part of the building - the first phase of three construction phases - has been in continual use since 1888. The last renovation was in the late 1970s. The Legislature allocated $7.6 million for the project in 1974. It was finished in 1980.

The original building was designed to be cooled in summer through the transoms and open windows, with the majority of light to come from outside through skylights. The transoms were removed or nailed shut during the 1970s renovation, and the skylights were covered later to protect the Tiffany-style glass.

The restoration project is estimated to cost between $100 million and $150 million.

The first phase involves restoration of the Tiffany-style skylights over the House and Senate, which will cost 1 percent of the total, Mockler said.

She said the goal should be to restore the building to its original state as much as possible by removing fake ceilings, installing new windows and refinishing the cherry wood.

This is what other Western states, including Idaho and Utah, did or are doing with their capitol buildings, which were all built at about the same time, she said.

As for the picture frames, Mockler said they had to be replaced because people - legislators, visitors or both - would get bored and pick the gold off the molding.

The building deserves good treatment, she said, as the only landmark building in Wyoming that is a national historic site.

"I love the building. So does everybody else," Mockler said.

Contact Joan Barron at {M3joan.barron@trib.com or by phone at 307-632-1244.