Pennsylvania State Capitol Informations

The Pennsylvania State Capitol is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Pennsylvania located in downtown Harrisburg which was designed by architect Joseph Miller Huston in 1902 and completed in 1906 in a Beaux-Arts style with decorative Renaissance themes throughout. The capitol houses the legislative chambers for the Pennsylvania General Assembly, made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the Harrisburg chambers for the Supreme and Superior Courts of Pennsylvania, as well as the offices of the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor. It is also the main building of the Pennsylvania State Capitol Complex.

The seat of government for the state was originally in Philadelphia, then was relocated to Lancaster in 1799 and finally to Harrisburg in 1812. The current capitol, known as the Huston Capitol, is the third state capitol building to be built in Harrisburg. The first, the Hills Capitol, was destroyed in 1897 by a fire and the second, the Cobb Capitol, was left unfinished when funding was discontinued in 1899.

President Theodore Roosevelt attended the building's dedication in 1906. After its completion, the capitol project was the subject of a graft scandal. The construction and subsequent furnishing cost three times more than the General Assembly had appropriated for the design and construction; architect, Joseph Huston and four others were convicted of graft for price gouging.

The Pennsylvania State Capitol is often referred to as a "palace of art" because of its many sculptures, murals and stained-glass windows, most of which are Pennsylvania themed or were made by Pennsylvanians. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006; the boundaries of the designation were expanded to include the Capitol Complex in 2013 with the capitol as a contributing property.

William Penn formed the first government of the then-Province of Pennsylvania on October 28, 1682, in Chester, Pennsylvania. The government did not have a regular meeting place and often met in Quaker meeting houses or at private residences in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania's first statehouse, now known as Independence Hall, was built in Philadelphia starting in 1732 and was completed in 1753. With both the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the First and Second Continental Congresses, and the Confederation Congress, three predecessors of the modern Congress of the United States occupying Independence Hall from 1774 to 1789, the state legislature considered proposals for moving the seat of the state government. John Harris, Jr. offered to give 4 acres (2 ha) and 21 square perches (5,717 ft2; 531 m2) of land near the banks of the Susquehanna River in central Pennsylvania to the state, provided that it be eventually used as the site of the capital. Harris also laid out a city in 1785, near his plot of land, and named it in honor of his father. In 1799, the legislature voted to relocate the capital to Lancaster instead of Harrisburg, because of Lancaster's greater population. From 1799 to 1812, the legislature resided in Lancaster at the Old City Hall.

The legislature voted in 1810 to relocate the capital again, and moved the seat of government to Harrisburg in October 1812 onto the land originally given by Harris a decade earlier. An additional 10 acres (4 ha) was also purchased from United States Senator William Maclay. The legislature met in the old Dauphin County courthouse for the next decade until a new capitol was constructed. A competition was held to determine the design of the capitol starting in 1816, which "was the first formal contest for [designing] an American statehouse". The designs submitted, including one from William Strickland, were rejected as being too expensive. Another contest was started in January 1819. Of the seventeen designs submitted, two were selected as semifinalists. One was from Harrisburg architect Stephen Hills and the other was from the designer of the Washington Monument, Robert Mills; Hills' design was selected. Hills had designed a "red-brick, Federal-style" capitol to "architecturally represent the function of democratic government." Construction began on the Hills Capitol in 1819 and it was completed in 1822. The capitol's construction and subsequent furnishing was estimated to have cost $244,500. The Hills Capitol was visited by famous people, including the Marquis de Lafayette in 1825 and Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, (later King Edward VII) in 1860.Abraham Lincoln visited the capitol in 1861 as president-elect, and then his body lay in state there after his 1865 assassination. Pennsylvania's collection of Civil War battle flags, which were accumulated in 1866, was moved from the State Arsenal to the second floor of the capitol in 1872. The flags were moved, again, in 1895 to the Executive, Library and Museum Building. On February 2, 1897, around noon, smoke was discovered coming from the Lieutenant Governor's offices. By early evening, the Hills Capitol had been reduced to a "smoldering mass of debris".

After the destruction of the Hills Capitol, the now "homeless" legislature moved to a nearby Methodist Church. There were soon demands that the capital be relocated to Pittsburgh or Philadelphia; the legislature quickly appropriated money to build a new capitol in Harrisburg. Governor Daniel H. Hastings opted for a pay-as-you-go policy to allow the construction costs to be spread over multiple annual budgets. Governor Hastings also figured that $550,000 was enough to build "a small legislative building" that could be added onto as needed over time. After building designs were submitted by various architects in another competition, Henry Ives Cobb was chosen in 1897 to design the new capitol. Construction of the Cobb Capitol began on May 2, 1898. The legislature met in the finished building, which they had deemed complete, even though it was an "unadorned, unfinished, several-story brown brick structure that looked like a factory", on January 3, 1899. Cobb himself described the building simply as "ugly" but believed that he would be able to finish it eventually, when more funding became available.

Governor William A. Stone appointed a new Capitol Building Commission in 1901. The commission then held another design competition, for Pennsylvania architects only, which prevented Cobb, a Chicagoan, from submitting a design or finishing his capitol. The Building Commission also stipulated that parts of the unfinished, current capitol were to be used in the new capitol. The General Assembly had appropriated $4 million for the construction of the capitol. It did not limit the total amount to be used in furnishing the building. This caused problems after construction completion of the capitol. The American Institute of Architects was opposed to competition, citing that the terms of the competition were "calculated to only 'encourage favoritism and injustice' and that they in no way obligated the Capitol [Building] Commission to select the best design or the best architect". The Institute also advised that no Pennsylvania architects enter the competition; Philadelphia architect Addison Hutton was subsequently expelled from the organization after submitting an entry. Joseph Miller Huston's design was chosen from among nine entries in the competition in January 1902.

The ground was broken for the Huston Capitol on November 2, 1902, but the cornerstone was not laid until May 5, 1904. Ownership of the capitol was handed over to the state government on August 15, 1906, and the Capitol Building Commission was dissolved.

Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker dedicated the new capitol on October 4, 1906. Former Governor Stone, who had become president of the Building Commission after leaving office, ceremoniously gave the key to the capitol to Governor Pennypacker. President Theodore Roosevelt, who had arrived earlier that morning by a special train to deliver a speech and tour the new capitol, declared it "the handsomest building I ever saw". The Pennsylvania, Northern Central, Reading, and Cumberland Valley railroads each ran special trains to accommodate the crowds traveling to and from Harrisburg for the dedication.

Although the building was completed, the majority of the artwork in and around the capitol would not be completed for another two decades. The murals in the rotunda were not installed until 1908 and the sculptures outside the entrance to the capitol were dedicated on October 4, 1911. The collection of Civil War flags were removed from the Executive, Library and Museum Building. After a parade and a ceremony, they were installed in glass display cases in the capitol rotunda on June 14, 1914. The decoration of the capitol was completed on May 23, 1927, when the murals in the Supreme Court Chambers were unveiled.

William H. Berry was elected in 1906, shortly after the dedication, to the office of State Treasurer on a reform "fusion ticket". Berry was the only Democrat elected to a statewide office from 1895 to 1934. His successful campaign was deemed by Governor Pennypacker to be "one of those freaks of ill fortune". Berry began investigating the costs of the capitol project and brought its $13 million pricetag to the attention of the public. Part of the reason for the discrepancy was Pennsylvania's "over-elaborate" and sometimes "unintelligible" method of "ordering and purchasing supplies, equipment [and] furnishings, commonly called the 'per-foot rule' ". Because the methods of measuring under the "per-foot rule" were not rigorously enforced, furnishing could be, intentionally, overpriced by the supplier. For example, a flagpole installed on the capitol roof was priced at $850; Berry estimated the value of the pole to have been only $150. Other expenses included $1,619 for a $125 bootblack stand and $3,257 for a $325 "mahogany case in the Senate barber shop".

Pennypacker tried to demonstrate that costs associated with the capitol were reasonable in comparison with similar notable structures. He pointed out that the United States Capitol cost $18 million, but had "fifty-five less [rooms] than the Capitol at Harrisburg." Pennypacker also showed how the New York State Capitol had cost $24 million, and was still unfinished. After an investigation, a total of five people, including Huston, were convicted, on December 18, 1908, and sentenced to two years in prison for "conspiring with State officials to defraud the State in the erection and furnishing of the Capitol." The Superintendent of Public Ground and Buildings James Shumaker and Auditor General William P. Snyder were also convicted. Among the convicted, John H. Sanderson and William L. Mathues died before going to prison.

From 1912 to 1917, the state acquired all of the 541 separate properties that comprise the Eighth Ward east of the capitol. The Eighth Ward was situated between the capitol and a set of railroad tracks, then owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad.Arnold Brunner was hired in 1916 to develop new accommodations for state government, which had already outgrown the capitol. He introduced his plan in 1920, which called, first, for the demolition of the Eighth Ward. Brunner planned two office buildings behind the capitol, the North and South Office Buildings, and these were separated by a courtyard he named the People's Court. The South Office Building was completed in 1921. The leveling of the Eighth Ward was finished in 1925.

Although Brunner died on February 14, 1925, elements of his plans were still completed, except for his People's Court, which became a parking lot. Brunner planned a bridge to cross the railroad tracks and connect the capitol with the highest point in the city at 13th Street. Brunner had also originally planned to have another bridge span the Susquehanna River, on the west side of the capitol. After his death, parts of the bridge were redesigned and became the current State Street Bridge, which was completed in 1930. The Education Building, or Forum Building, was completed in 1931.

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission erected two historical markers on August 11, 1953—one commemorating the Hills Capitol and another for the current capitol. The capitol was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 14, 1977. Beginning in 1981, highly regarded historic preservation architect, Hyman Myers, of the Philadelphia architecture firm, Vitetta Group, oversaw the restoration of the capital building. In 1982, the Capitol Preservation Committee (CPC) was created "to supervise and coordinate the historic preservation of the State Capitol Building". One of the CPC's first projects was the preservation of the 390 Civil War flags and 22 flags from the Spanish–American War, which had been undisturbed since being placed in the rotunda in 1914. Between 1985 and 1987, scaffolding was erected in the rotunda and the murals removed for restoration. The statue atop the capitol dome was removed for restoration via helicopter in the summer of 1998, being returned in September of the same year. It was decided to restore the Senate Chamber after it was flooded with 26,000 US gallons (98,000 L; 22,000 imp gal) of water on February 14, 1999. The capitol was declared a National Historic Landmark on September 20, 2006, during its centennial. On February 27, 2013, the boundaries of the designation were revised to encompass the grounds and surrounding buildings.

The capitol is 520 feet (160 m) long and 272 feet (83 m) tall. It is 254 feet (77 m) wide at its center wing and its two side wings are 212 feet (65 m). The facade of the capitol is constructed out of granite from Hardwick, Vermont. The 94-foot -diameter (29 m) dome is topped by the gilded brass statue of Commonwealth by Roland Hinton Perry. Standing 14 feet 6 inches (4 m) tall atop a 4-foot -diameter (1 m) ball, the statue is the personification of a commonwealth. The dome itself weighs 26,000 short tons (24,000 metric tons) and was architecturally inspired by St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

Huston designed the large bronze doors at the capitol's main entrance. They were modeled by sculptor Otto Jahnsen and were both cast in one piece using the lost wax method of casting by the Henry Bonnard Bronze Company. The doors are decorated with scenes from the history of Pennsylvania, such as the arrival of William Penn and his peace treaty with the Lenape. Busts of people who were important in the construction of the capitol, like Governor Pennypacker, Boies Penrose, and Matthew Quay, decorate the edges of the doors. The bust of Huston hides the doors' keyhole.

The entrance is flanked by two sculptures, entitled Love and Labor: The Unbroken Law and The Burden of Life: The Broken Law. Both were sculpted out of Carrara marble from models created by George Grey Barnard in 1909.

The Pennsylvania Capitol Grounds, officially the Capitol Park, comprises 45 acres (18 ha) and 26.4 square perches (7,187 ft2; 668 m2). The grounds are bounded by North Street on the north, 7th Street on the east, Walnut Street on the south and 3rd Street on the west. Arnold Brunner designed the layout of the grounds, which originally totaled only 15 acres (6 ha) from the land Harris and Maclay gave to the state. The remaining 29 acres (12 ha) were added when the state bought the Eighth Ward.

Complete article available at this page.