House Lounge opens to first tours since 2020

Jackson Cooper, Missouri News Network

JEFFERSON CITY — The House Lounge at the Missouri State Capitol is open to public tours for the first time since before the pandemic. 
New Missouri House Speaker Jon Patterson, R-Lee's Summit, announced the reopening Friday. The lounge had been closed to the public since March of 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns. 
Now, the space will be open to tours when not in use by House members.
In a news release, Patterson expressed hope that reopening the House Lounge would help visitors feel better connected to the state's history.
“We are proud to showcase the rich history of our state by inviting Missourians and visitors back into the House Lounge,” Patterson said. “As speaker of the house, I want to make state government more accessible to constituents and that starts (with) us.”
The lounge is best known for "A Social History of the State of Missouri," an expansive mural painted by native Missourian Thomas Hart Benton in 1935 and 1936. The mural depicts elements of the state's political, agricultural and social history from European settlement through the early Great Depression.
The mural was deemed by Benton himself as a career-defining piece.