State Capitol - Charleston, WV - American Guide Series on Waymarking.com

8. The STATE CAPITOL {open 9-5 daily; guides), E. Kanawha Blvd., between Duffy St. and California Ave. and extending to Washington St., stands on shaded landscaped grounds overlooking the Great Kanawha River. Designed in the Italian Renaissance style by Cass Gilbert and completed in 1932 at a cost of $io,ooc,ocOj the symmetrical U-shaped structure, of limestone and marble, has a porticoed central section and two four-story wings; its flat roof is enclosed by a balustraded parapet. A dome 300 feet high, embossed with gold leaf, crowns the central unit, which measures 120 by 558 feet. Atop the crowning lantern is a bronze staff upon which is poised a golden eagle. Including the basement, the Capitol has 14 acres of floor space. The outer walls are adorned with pairs of Doric pilasters, two stories in height, which rise in support of the main cornice.

The main entrance on Kanawha Street, protected by a monumental Corinthian portico, is approached by a broad flight of steps. The col-onnade of the portico rises in support of a plain classic pediment under a copper-colored gable roof. The south portal is protected by sliding storm doors of Roman design, cast in solid bronze. The paneled doors are decorated with rosette-shaped clusters of foliage representing trees native to the State.

The main south entrance opens into the rotunda on the principal floor, a circular-arched hall directly beneath the dome. Its pilastered walls of Vermont marble, pierced with four massive arches, rise to a ca ived fri eze at the base of the drum. The north and south arches open upon the two entrance porticoes, while the two others give access to the east and west foyers. These foyers lead to the house and senate chambers, in the east and west wings respectively of the central unit. The arches extend to the base of the dome and are adorned with lunette panels of deep-blue plaster. The floor of the rotunda, circular in plan around an open well, is inlaid with Italian travertine and white Vermont marble. A balustrade encircles the well in the rotunda floor, through which can be seen a colonnaded hall on the floor below. Goldleaf bands decorate the walls of the circular drum and ceiling of the dome, which are in shades of blue, gray, and old rose. A row of slender windows covered with gold-leaf grilles encircles the dome at the base of the bell.

The walls and floors of the foyers are of the same marble as that of the rotunda, but the ceilings are embellished with square coffered panels, each decorated with a bronze cluster of leaves against a background of rose. Light comes softly through translucent Italian alabaster urns, supported on standards of black and gold Belgian marble. Benches of breeched violet marble are on both sides of the foyers.

Designed with strict classic proportions, the Senate Chamber, at the west end of the main unit^ has an air of quiet dignity and beauty. Public galleries framed by massive arches open on three sides of the room, and a fourth arch, set with a blue panel, is a background for the dais. The walls are divided by rose-colored panels of acoustic plaster. Behind the galleries are small arched windows covered with ornamental bronze grilles. The domical ceiling, topped with a small cupola, is in the form of a paneled skylight with stained glass. In the center, hung on a brass chain, is a chandelier of imported hand-cut glass. Behind the dais is a gold-trimmed wall clock. The desks and chairs are of West Virginia black walnut, and the president's desk and chair of natural unvarnished walnut. A heavy rose-colored carpet covers the floor.

The decorations and furnishings of the House Chamber, at the east end of the main unit, are similar to those in the senate. The house of delegates uses the electric voting system, which was installed in 1935. On each desk is a cluster of buttons, released for voting by the delegate's individual key. Pressing one button flashes on a green light for ‘aye’ opposite the legislator’s name on the wall behind the speaker’s desk. Another button flashes a red light for ‘nay.’ Provision is made for the legislator to change his mind, for he may press a center button, erase his vote, and start all over again. A fourth button summons a page. Votes are totaled mechanically on the speaker’s desk, and after that a vote cannot be changed except by unanimous consent. The vote of the 94 delegates is recorded in 2 minutes, whereas by roll call it usually required from 15 to 30 minutes.

Double flanking stairways of white marble, leading off the hallway on the south side of the rotunda, descend to the Doric Hall, under the rotunda on the ground floor. This hall has fluted Doric columns and six crystal lights suspended on bronze chains. In the center of the hall is a circular colonnade of 16 square Doric piers, enclosing the well in the rotunda floor. Bronze light stands are arranged in pairs inside the colonnade. High above the well is the blue vaulted ceiling of the dome. A crystal chandelier, 8 feet in diameter, containing more than 3,300 pieces of hand-cut crystal and weighing more than 2 tons, is suspended from the dome ceiling. A circular design on the floor has the same diameter as the chandelier far above. The chandelier is lowered by a hand windlass from within the shell of the dome for cleaning and the replacement of bulbs. The operation of lowering and raising requires more than three hours.

The Outer Reception Room of the governor’s suite, on the ground floor in the extreme west end of the main unit, is regarded as the show room of the Capitol. It is of Georgian Colonial design with ivory-colored walls, embellished with fluted Corinthian pilasters. The parquet floors, of herringbone design, have a border of quarter-sawed oak, black walnut, and maple. The floor is covered with a tan rug, 26 by 60 feet and weighing 1,800 pounds, made especially for the room and said to have been the largest seamless rug in the United States at the time the Capitol was constructed. Two large crystal chandeliers and many crystal wall brackets light the room; a fireplace of black and gold Belgian marble is at the eastern end. The windows are draped in satin.

In the basement, directly under the executive suite, is the State Museum. A number of collections illustrate the history, science, and social conditions of the pioneers. There are several industrial exhibits, including one containing relics of mine disasters. Implements used by the Indians and iMound Builders are displayed in several glass cases. There are mounted specimens of native birds and animals and a number of native fossils. A beaver trap said to have belonged to Daniel Boone reveals how little basic change there has been in the* design of the steel trap. Boone s rifle, Lewis Wetzels rifle, Aaron Burr s spectacles, a model of James Rumsey s steamboat, and a model of the Blennerhassett mansion are among other prized items in the museum.

On the third floor of the east wing is the Supreme Court of Appeals Chamber. Opening on three sides of the room are Ionic colonnades "vrith bronze-colored capitals and bases of black Belgian marble. Flanking these are aisles, screened from the room by dark red draperies. The ceiling, opened by a paneled skylight, is coffered in bronze. The floor is insulated with compressed cork, and the furnishings are all of American walnut.

The State Law Library {open 9-5 Mon. — Fri., 9-12 Sat.), at the north end of the hallway, has about 85,000 volumes of textbooks on legal subjects, legal philosophy, State reports, and decisions of courts of record of the LTnited States, Canada, and England. The collection was started soon after West Virginia was created in 1863, but until 1892, when the legislature made the first appropriation for reference books, it was supported by contributions from lawyers of the State.

On the fourth floor of the east wing is the State Department of Archives and History {open 9-5 Mon. — Fri., 9-12 Sat.). The department has charge of all documents relating to the settlement of the State, the period of the reorganized government of Virginia, the formation of West Virginia from the territory of Virginia, and biographical matter pertaining to important men, public records, state papers, documents of the legislative, executive, and judicial departments and all state officials from June 20, 1863, to the present time. The library has more than 100,000 volumes. All books and papers are for use in the room, but none may be borrowed.

Tours into the Dome are made only with guides (tours 11:30 and 2:30 daily). A flight of stairs on the north leads to an inside and outside balcony at the base of the dome. From the interior balcony there is a good view of the rotunda below and of the huge chandelier that hangs on a 45-foot bronze chain.

A door on the north opens to an exterior balcony at the base of the drum, the highest point to which visitors are usually permitted. From the deck of this balcony there is a comprehensive view of the low rugged hills, the city, and the winding river. Encircling the outer drum is a peripteral colonnade of 36 slender Corinthian columns, which rise to a second balcony around the clerestory of the drum, surrounded by a carved balustrade. Below is a sculptured band of festoons. Above the clerestory is the gold-plated cap of the dome, surmounted by a lantern cupola. At the base of the lantern is another balcony surrounded by a metal railing covered with gold leaf. From this balcony may be had an even better view of the city and surrounding country.

On the west lawn of the Capitol are Two Monuments standing side by side. One^ a statue of Stonewall Jackson by Sir Moses Ezekial, was 'erected as a memorial to the Confederate soldiers.’ The other, the symbolic figure of a mountaineer, posed by Rimfire Hamrick, is dedicated to 'the brave men and devoted women who saved West Virginia to the Union.’ In the southwest corner of the grounds is the figure of a Union soldier; the base of the statue bears an inscription 'to the 32,000 soldiers, sailors and marines contributed by West Virginia to the Union.’-West Virginia: A Guide to the Mountain State 1941

The Capitol is still in place and in very good shape. There has been recent controversy with one of the monuments on the lawn being a statue of General Stonewall Jackson, a local son who was a slave owner. There is an initiative to have it removed.

Book: West Virginia Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 190 - 194 Year Originally Published: 1941

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