It’s been nearly 200 years since the first United States Senate page was appointed in 1829 by Daniel Webster, a senator from Massachusetts who supported John Quincy Adams. Fast forward to 2024, and you find Graham Lightfield, now a senior at MHS, who served as a page for two weeks this summer. Lightfield applied and was nominated by John Thune, one of the Republican senators from South Dakota and the current minority whip.
Gone are the days when the list of responsibilities for pages required refilling ink wells, building fires, polishing spittoons, and fetching chewing tobacco. Graham says, “Some of the errands I performed included: getting the soon-to-speak senator their pedestal, getting water, making copies of the voting results and other important documents, asking if they wanted a copy of their speech, and holding the door for senators.”
Graham thinks decision-making best describes a day in the life of a senator, but says he spent much of his time waiting. “There are two spots where the pages are placed, and they interchange every hour,” Graham says. “The first spot is the senate floor on the rostrum – the steps that lead up to the vice president’s chair. The other spot is in the lobby – the room located behind the vice president’s spot. When you wait in the senate chamber, you wait on the steps for the phone to ring to tell pages to set up a senator.” Setting up a senator he explains means “you put their preferred type of water (ice or no ice) on their desk. If you are in the lobby, you spend your time just sitting there studying senator flashcards.”
However, you need only to look up to entertain yourself with the grandeur of the rotunda or what Graham recalls “the most awe-inspiring part” of the U.S. Capitol. ”If you look up, you can see the dome,” he notes. “There are a ton of famous paintings in there as well.”
The original dome was 144 feet high, constructed of wood and brick, and covered in copper. When the Capitol building was vastly expanded, that dome was considered out of proportion and its wood was deemed a fire hazard. The current cast-iron dome rises to 288 feet and is punctuated by the stunningly beautiful frieze, The Apotheosis of Washington.
The entire building features 1.5 million square feet, approximately 540 rooms, 658 windows, and 300 pieces of art. It is considered one of the top sights to visit in D.C. Graham believes, “One of the privileges of being a page was getting a dome tour,” as tours of the dome must be arranged by a member of Congress. Tours of the dome are also not for the faint of heart. Literally. The tour is conducted between the old and the new – the inner and the outer – as the two domes essentially are nested together like a set of painted Russian dolls.
From the Crypt – the room directly beneath the rotunda, “We climbed up 300 steps to a ledge that was nearly at the top of the dome,”Graham recalls. The dome steps consist of a series of straight, steep, narrow, spiral, curved, and irregularly-spaced landings and stairs that pass by over 100 windows, the frieze, and eventually reach the observation balcony just below the Statue of Freedom. “From that point, you could see all of D.C. and it was amazing,” Graham says. “Despite the fact that I am scared of heights.”
After each legislative day adjourned, the pages returned to Webster Hall, named after the same Daniel Webster mentioned earlier, who later became U.S. Secretary of State. The student pages were housed at Webster Hall, a stately brick and white-columned former funeral home that was refurbished in 1995. It also contains the school for senate pages. The student residence is provided with 24/7 protection both indoors and out by the United States Capitol Police. Graham says, “It isn’t that big, but it had day and night security and enough space for all of us. The Hart office building is around two blocks away from Webster Hall, and from there we took secured underground transit to the Capitol.”
When the Senate wasn’t in session, the pages explored Washington. “My group went to most of the Smithsonians. One day, the entire Senate Page Program got to go to a baseball game, and another day we went to monuments across D.C. like the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial.”
Graham highly recommends the program to other students his age and says, “Being a senate page is amazing because you get to go to the United States Capitol and work in the Senate while it is in session. You get to work with some of the most important figures in modern history while making friends with people across the country.”
“Before I went to the Senate Page Program, I honestly wasn’t intending to have a future in politics,” Graham says, “but after, I have gained a huge interest in it, and it could likely be something I do later in my life.” As witnessed by the Capitol that was built, burned down by the British during the War of 1812, rebuilt, extended, restored, and is continuously being preserved, it’s true, a lot of things could happen.
Submitted Photo: John Thune & Max Lightfield
Staff
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