Beyond, the main corridor widens into a circular space, beneath the light well, from which a door to the east opens into a sort of vestibule. From this rise a stairway and private elevator, both of which lead to the open space before the office of the Marshal of the Supreme Court of the United States. The elevator was put in nominally for the exclusive use of the justices, but the age and failing health of Mr. Justice Field no doubt primarily led to the convenience.

In this vestibule are noticeable six unique columns, whose Americanized capitals might command attention on the score of a " Columbian order" of development in architecture. Why should not these designs made by Latrobe from the natural products of the country be as stimulating in artistic beauty and suggestion as the acanthus of Greece or the lotus of the Nile ? Jefferson, it is said, recognized and admired the efforts of the architect in this direction, and a similar capital, sent to him by Latrobe, is still in the hallway at Monticello. The shafts are composed of bundles of the stalks of the maize or Indian corn rising out of a circlet of pointed leaves, the joints winding spirally; the capitals are graceful designs of the leaves and of the opening, silk-tasselled ears, fillet-bound at the base.