Gone are Kevin McCarthy and the happy-seeming dog that once featured so prominently on a basement wall of the Longworth House Office Building. More than a year after McCarthy’s departure from Congress, and several months into a new Congress, a new and updated mural will soon take its place.
Workers with the Architect of the Capitol are in the process of putting up a new design that aims to be longer-lasting than the original, the House Administration Committee and the House Office of the Chief Administrative Officer confirmed.
“The new mural has a stronger focus on the institution itself, making it more evergreen than the previous mural was,” a House Administration Committee spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Work should be finished on the mural “in the next week or so,” a CAO spokesperson said.
The initial artwork featured a collage of familiar congressional faces, including McCarthy, whose likeness was superimposed over the Capitol Dome, along with the aforementioned dog, which was placed — tongue hanging out — near other House leaders. They were joined on the wall by a throng of smiling tourists, kids, staff, Capitol Police officers and some other canines, including a beloved police comfort dog.
The mural was completed in September 2023. Roughly a month later, McCarthy was ousted from the speakership. Soon afterward, he left Congress altogether, prompting questions about whether the California Republican would be covered up.
He was not.
McCarthy remained for more than a year, until the vinyl wallpaper came down last month.
“RIP … to the Longworth mural. Gone too soon (or not soon enough?),” Noah Yantis, a House Republican chief of staff, posted on X at the time.
House Administration aides then said a new mural would be coming soon, and work began last month.
The Architect of the Capitol is tasked with updating the design, applying several large sheets of vinyl wallpaper to the area outside Dunkin’ Donuts and the Longworth Cafeteria, a heavily trafficked corridor for members, staff and guests. AOC employees were out Monday working on the wall.
While the extent of the design is unclear, the first panels to go up include images of the Capitol Dome and steps, a close-up of the Car of History Clock, excerpts from the Constitution and images of hearing rooms and House office buildings. One section of the wall features an image of a bust of Joseph Gurney Cannon, the early 20th-century House speaker and namesake of the Cannon House Office Building.
“The new mural will include photos taken by our House Creative Services’ photographers and feature the iconic House campus buildings and scenery that Members, staff, and visitors will easily recognize,” the CAO spokesperson said. The CAO’s Creative Services design and production team worked with Speaker Mike Johnson’s office and the House Administration Committee to finalize the new artwork.
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