Urban Legend Says Notorious Peeping Tom Once Stalked Michigan’s State Capitol

There was once a time when prurient thrill seekers in Michigan's capital city of Lansing would seek out the city's famed sin strip along Michigan Avenue one block across the Grand River from the Capitol Building. Or perhaps it was a trip to the city's Playboy Club - the last brick-and-mortar venue in American for the venerable gentleman's magazine.

Others say a risqué view may have been as close as the basement of the state's Capitol Building. Urban legend says the floor of the capitol's rotunda was made of see-through glass. The story was shared to a discussion on Reddit asking about urban legends across state. This one is a doozy:

Growing up in Lansing, there was an urban legend that the glass floor in the State Capitol Building was originally built with transparent glass, but pervy guys would always be looking up women's skirts from the basement so the floor was replaced with translucent glass.

It seems difficult to believe that anyone would consider a transparent glass floor over a basement. Those who would be looking up could, of course, be seen looking up by anyone on the glass looking down.

READ MORE: Why Isn't Michigan More Popular With Vagabonds and Trainhoppers?

The glass floor, as seen in the photo above from a Facebook page maintained by the state capitol does show the translucent glass blocks that let light but not anything else pass through.

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If you feel uneasy about walking on broken glass as Annie Lennox once did, know that while the glass blocks have sustained damage in the past, they are resilient and reinforced.

The most significant damage to the glass floor occurred in 1931 when a fire broke out on the Capitol’s ground floor. The heat from the blaze cracked a number of the tiles. The glass floor is still occasionally damaged today, but don’t worry if you see a broken tile! The glass is supported with a framework of cast iron beams.

Further, there are 976 tiles on the floor and even today some of the original remain. If that's the case then those glass blocks are now and have always been translucent, so the see-through floor at the state's capitol will remain just an urban legend.

See more inside the state's capitol building: