Connecticut State Capitol
Encyclopedia
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
, the capital of Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
. The building houses the Connecticut General Assembly
Connecticut General Assembly
The Connecticut General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is a bicameral body composed of the 151-member House of Representatives and the 36-member Senate. It meets in the state capital, Hartford. There are no term limits for either chamber.During...
; the upper house, the State Senate
Connecticut Senate
The Connecticut State Senate is the upper house of the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The state senate comprises 36 members, each representing a district with around 94,600 inhabitants. Senators are elected to two-year terms without term limits...
, and lower house, the House of Representatives
Connecticut House of Representatives
The Connecticut House of Representatives is the lower house in the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The house is composed of 151 members representing an equal number of districts, with each constituency containing nearly 22,600 residents...
, as well as the office of the Governor. The Connecticut Supreme Court sits across Capitol Avenue in a different building.
History
The current building is the third capitol building for the State of Connecticut since the American RevolutionAmerican Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
.
The General Assembly had met alternately in Hartford and New Haven since before the Revolution. When in Hartford, the General Assembly met in the Old State House, designed in 1792 by Charles Bulfinch
Charles Bulfinch
Charles Bulfinch was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first native-born American to practice architecture as a profession....
, and when sitting in New Haven, in a state house designed in 1827 by Ithiel Town
Ithiel Town
Ithiel Town was a prominent American architect and civil engineer. One of the first generation of professional architects in the United States, Town made significant contributions to American architecture in the first half of the 19th century. He was high-strung, sophisticated, generous,...
. After the Civil War, the complications of this plan began to be evident, and both Hartford and New Haven competed to be sole state capital. Hartford won, and the new sole capital needed one central capitol building. The General Assembly authorized a million dollar project, and two competitors, James G. Batterson and Richard M. Upjohn
Richard M. Upjohn
Richard Michell Upjohn, FAIA, was an influential American architect, co-founder and president of the American Institute of Architects.-Early life and career:...
vied to be awarded the project. Upjohn won, but Batterson, a stone importer and merchant and not an architect, was named the building contractor. Batterson then continually revised the Upjohn plan to more and more closely resemble his own plan. The central tower, for example, is Batterson's, not Upjohn's. Batterson's extensive elaboration of Upjohn's plan ended up more than doubling the cost to over $2,500,000.
Richard M. Upjohn's
Richard M. Upjohn
Richard Michell Upjohn, FAIA, was an influential American architect, co-founder and president of the American Institute of Architects.-Early life and career:...
design is in the Eastlake Style
Eastlake Movement
The Eastlake Movement was a nineteenth century architectural and household design reform movement started by architect and writer Charles Eastlake . The movement is generally considered part of the late Victorian period in terms of broad antique furniture designations...
, with French and Gothic revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
elements. Construction of the building began in 1871. The building was completed in 1878, and it opened for the session of the General Assembly in January 1879. The New York Times noted when it was completed, that the new building was "a vast mass of white marble (is) this imposing structure, and in the dazzling sunshine of a New-England Summer noon sparkles like a fairy palace of frost work."
The site of the Capitol was chosen since it is adjacent to Bushnell Park, and had access to more surrounding open space than the older building in the immediate downtown. The site was originally the location of Trinity College
Trinity College (Connecticut)
Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University. The college enrolls 2,300 students and has been coeducational since 1969. Trinity offers 38 majors and 26 minors, and has...
and was then known as Trinity Hill, and the city street to the immediate east is still named Trinity Street. (The college relocated to a new campus south of the downtown.)
There are some galleries of historical artifacts on the building's main floor, principally battle standards of Civil War units. The flags were deposited with the state by 10,000 of the state's veterans, who formed a procession to the capitol, and deposited 30 regimental flags on September 17, 1879.
The building suffered some crowding of offices, and the introduction of partition walls and other temporary expediants which detracted from the plan of the building up to 1979 and 1989 when efforts began at restoration.
The State Capitol was designated as a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1971.
Architecture
The building is one of the largest Eastlake StyleEastlake Movement
The Eastlake Movement was a nineteenth century architectural and household design reform movement started by architect and writer Charles Eastlake . The movement is generally considered part of the late Victorian period in terms of broad antique furniture designations...
buildings. The exterior is East Canaan, Connecticut marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
and granite from Westerly, Rhode Island. The building is roughly rectangular, the interior spaces organized around two open interior courts that run vertically to large skylights. In the center is a third circular open rotunda beneath the dome. The large hall of the House of Representatives forms an extension on the south side.
The building's ornately decorated facades display statuary and include several statues, medallions and carved tympana over the doors (except the west, which only has statues). The statues are of politicians and other people important to the state's history, such as the initiator of Connecticut, the Reverend Thomas Hooker
Thomas Hooker
Thomas Hooker was a prominent Puritan colonial leader, who founded the Colony of Connecticut after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts...
(c. 1586–1647), Governor John Winthrop, Jr. (1605/1606–1676), Roger Sherman
Roger Sherman
Roger Sherman was an early American lawyer and politician, as well as a founding father. He served as the first mayor of New Haven, Connecticut, and served on the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, and was also a representative and senator in the new republic...
(1721-1793), Revolutionary War Governor Jonathan Trumbull
Jonathan Trumbull
Jonathan Trumbull, Sr. was one of the few Americans who served as governor in both a pre-Revolutionary colony and a post-Revolutionary state...
(1710-1785), Noah Webster
Noah Webster
Noah Webster was an American educator, lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English spelling reformer, political writer, editor, and prolific author...
(1758-1843), General Joseph Hawley
Joseph Roswell Hawley
Joseph Roswell Hawley was the 42nd Governor of Connecticut, a U.S. politician in the Republican and Free Soil parties, a Civil War general, and a journalist and newspaper editor. He served two terms in the United States House of Representatives and was a four-term U.S...
(1826-1905), Civil War Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles
Gideon Welles
Gideon Welles was the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1861 to 1869. His buildup of the Navy to successfully execute blockades of Southern ports was a key component of Northern victory of the Civil War...
(1802-1878), and United States Senator Orville Hitchcock Platt (1827–1905). There are 24 niches for sculpture, (eight of which are still empty). The last one added was that of Ella T. Grasso
Ella T. Grasso
Ella Grasso , born Ella Giovanna Oliva Tambussi, was an American politician, and first woman elected governor of Connecticut.-Biography:...
, the first female governor of the state, who died in 1981 of cancer shortly after resigning her office.
There are high relief scenes from the state's history in the 16 tympana above the doors, (except for the carving above the main north door, which is of the state seal). The typanum of the main east door, "The Charter Oak" by Charles Salewski, was the first piece of sculpture created for the Capitol. The interior floors used white marble and red slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
from Connecticut, and some of the colored marble is from Italy.
The statues, medallions and tympana are grouped by period. The north facade has six statues, five tympana, and two medallions, and the carvings are of pre-Revolutionary War figures. The east and west facades contain people from the Revolutionary War or government service, and the south facade's figures are from the Civil War and onwards.
The central domed tower is distinctive. The dome itself is 32 feet tall; on top of that is a cupola 55 feet in height, and the drum below is 75 feet, making the drum taller than the 70-foot height of the main walls. The overall height of the tower is 257 feet (81.4 m).
The building's dome originally had a large statue on top of it, named 'The Genius of Connecticut', which was taken down in 1938 after being damaged in the severe hurricane of that year. The statue was cast in bronze from a plaster original, and was 17 feet, 10 inches tall, and weighed 3.5 tons. It executed in Rome, Italy, and was cast in Munich, Germany. During World War II, the piece was donated to the federal government and melted down as part of the war effort to make ammunition and machine parts. The original plaster statue is now at the capitol, and has been coated in bronze. In 2002, Proposed Bill No. 5273 before the General Assembly sought authorization to make a new casting of the statue to restore the design for the capitol dome.
The project finally passed in 2009, and a new bronze cast has been made. It has not yet been mounted on the summit of the dome, awaiting an additional $200,000 in funding.
At the exterior base of the dome are 12 statues in six pairs representing Agriculture, Commerce, Education/Law, Force/War, Science/Justice, and Music.
The interior has two matching ornate open stairwells and all of the building interior is painted in a multi-colored scheme continuing the 1870s Eastlake design aesthetic throughout.
See also
- Connecticut Capitol PoliceConnecticut Capitol PoliceThe Connecticut State Capitol Police is the law enforcement agency responsible for the Connecticut State Capitol complex in Hartford.-History:In 1974, the Connecticut State Legislature created the Office of the State Capitol Police...
- (Video) Connecticut's State Capitol: Home to History
For further reading
- Curry, David Park and Pierce, Patricia Dawes, eds. Monument: The Connecticut State Capitol, Hartford, 1979.
- Ransom, David F. "James 0. Batterson and the New State House." The Connecticut Historical Society Bulletin, 45 (January 1980), 1-15.