Cupolas of Capitalism
State Capitol Building Histories

States from C to E
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U.S. Capitol Building showing Bulfinch's wooden dome. From the Lithograph Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress.

Early 19th century lithograph by Charles Fenderich, showing the U.S. Capitol Building.  Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

States with Capitol Buildings featuring prominent exterior cupolas are highlighted in yellow.  Historical information appearing on this page comes from the same sources acknowledged on the first page of this gallery.

Click on any picture to see an enlarged version, or to view the other historic images available in the Cupolas of Capitalism Picture Gallery.
 
STATE CITY STATE CAPITOL BUILDING DATE(s) / ARCHITECT(s) BLDG. DESCRIPTION(s), IMAGE(s) and SITE LINK(s)
California Sacramento 1856 / Reuben Clark designed and began construction of Capitol (started and stopped due to political wrangling).

1860-65 Capitol completely redesigned and construction begun again / Miner F. Butler (designer) with Reuben Clark appointed superintendent of construction. (Clark goes on leave for health reasons in Fall of 1865, is committed to Stockton Insane Asylum in February 1866, and dies there on July 4, 1866).

1865-1870 / G. Parker Cummings.

1870-71 / Henry Kenitzer and A .A. Bennett.

1872-74, construction completed / G. Parker Cummings again.

1906-08, first major remodel, mainly an interior modernization that added new office space and a fourth floor.  Senate and assembly chambers gutted and reworked in the process.  Little change to the exterior / ? architect.

1949-52, semicircular apse in rear removed, and the Art Deco / International Style influenced East Wing, a substantial addition, built in its place / Alfred Eichler.

1975-82, capitol restoration / Welton Becket Associates.

2001, repairs and security driven changes after limited damage to south entrance from truck attack and subsequent fire.		 California State Capitol Building. Photo by Howard J. Partridge.
Italian Renaissance Revival state capitol building.  Central circular drum tower is capped with a copper covered dome and cupola.  220 feet tall.  Pictures, tours, and more info at the California State Capitol Museum.  Also available is this detailed, illustrated history in Adobe Acrobat format from the California State Legislature.  More  building photos appear on the site of photographer Edward Crim, and a photo essay, appears on Donald Laird's California Landmarks site.
Colorado Denver 1886-1898, designed and construction started / Elijah E. Myers.

1898-1907, construction completed / Frank E. Edbrooke.		 Colorado State Capitol Building. Historic postcard image courtesy of Chris Miller.
Italian Renaissance Revival state capitol building.  Central circular drum tower is capped with a gold gilded dome and cupola.  276 feet tall.  More info offsite with this official virtual tour.  A fine photo album from Edward Crim is also available.
Connecticut Hartford
(Old and New State Houses)		 1792-96, Old State House designed and built / Charles Bullfinch.

1822, cupola tower added (possibly part of the original design), copied from the Old City Hall in New York City / ? architect.

1878-79, major remodel of Old State House by the City of Hartford removes original spiral stair in the Great Hall and squeezes a new third floor out of the high second floor rooms / ? architect.

1922, restoration removes extra floor added in 1878, building made fireproof, and steel roof trusses added.  Monumental stair in Great Hall is not the original Bulfinch design.

1872-79, New State House designed and built / Richard M. Upjohn.		 Historic photo of the Old Connecticut State Capitol Building. From the Library of Congress's Historic American Buildings Survey.
The Old State House is in the Federal style with a cupola tower.  Capped with a statue called Blind Justice.  Picture and more info offsite in this official description.

Late 20C photo of the Connecticut State Capitol Building from Bushnell Park, courtesy of Les R. Center.
The New State House is a mixture of Gothic and French Renaissance Revival.  Central circular drum tower is capped with a gold leafed dome and cupola.  Approx. 257 feet tall.  More offsite with tour info, building facts, history, and picture galleries from the Connecticut General Assembly.  Other government offerings include a pdf picture book and a basic building description.  The Bushnell Park website features some views from the park and a short building history.  Cornell University offers an old magazine review of the original construction.
Delaware Dover
(Old State House and New Legislative Hall)		 1787-92, Old State House designed and built (now a museum) / Alexander Givan.

1873-75, Mansard roof and central front tower (obscuring Palladian window) added, later removed in a restoration / ? architect.

1836-1926, Various additions / ? architect.

1910, Original roofline and second floor windows restored / ? architect.

1974-76, major exterior and interior restoration of Old State House / ? architect.

Sept. 2004- Oct. 2007, Old State House restoration and ADA compliance work.  Exterior bricks repointed.  Roof, exterior doors and windows replaced.  Interior repainted in historic scheme, plaster walls patched, floors restored, new HVAC and fire suppression systems added, electrical and plumbing systems upgraded / Bernardon Haber Holloway, Architects, PC., with Frens and Frens, LLC Restoration Architects.

1933 Legislative Hall designed and built (New Statehouse) / William Martin.

1970 & 1996 Legislative Hall enlarged / ? architect

1994-97, major interior renovations of Legislative Hall / Moeckel Carbonell Associates, Inc.		 Photo showing the front of the Old Delaware Statehouse. From the Library of Congress's Historic American Buildings Survey.
The Georgian style Old Statehouse features a central rooftop cupola.  More info is available offsite through the Delaware State Museum website.  The State of Delaware website also offers this panorama of the first floor.

Exterior view of Legislative Hall, the Delaware State Capitol Building. Image published with permission from Moeckel Carbonell Associates, Inc.
The Georgian Revival Legislative Hall is 90 feet tall with a central cupola tower.  More info offsite with an official virtual tour (and similarly appearing here), building history, and photos (these links have shown a tendency to go offline, especially on weekends).  An album from Edward Crim helps round out the photographic coverage.  A short photo essay is available on the state capitol focused website of Valerie Mockaitis.
District of Columbia Washington 1793-1800, North wing designed and built / designed by William Thornton (work supervised by architects Steven Hallet (1793-94); George Hadfield (1795-98); and James Hoban (1798-1800).

1803-11, South wing, rebuilt interior of North wing / Benjamin Henry Latrobe.

Aug. 24, 1814, burned (but not completely destroyed) by British troops in War of 1812.

1814-17, restoration begun by Benjamin Henry Latrobe.

1818-30, restoration finished and central portion built with a wooden dome / Charles Bulfinch.

1850-63, North and South wing extensions and new, taller central dome and cupola / Thomas Ustick Walter (resigned in 1865).  Capitol is essentially complete in 1863.

1865-1902, various modernizations to Capitol / Edward Clark.  Frederick Law Olmsted designed the landscaping for the Capitol grounds during this period.

1902-1923, various modernizations to Capitol / Elliott Woods.

1923-1954, various modernizations to Capitol / David Lynn.

1954-70, various modernizations to Capitol, with 1958-62 extension to East Front and repairs to dome / J. George Stewart.

1971-95, various modernizations and restorations, power plant enlarged, and several separate Capitol complex buildings added / George Malcolm White.

1988, old capitol columns removed in East Front extension erected as a garden sculpture in the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, D.C. / Russell Page, landscape designer.		 Relatively recent view of the United States Capitol Building. Photo is a public domain image from William J. Ball's Teaching Politics website.
The United States Capitol Building is composed of an original Federal Style central core, and several sympathetic Neoclassical additions.  It features a central circular drum tower capped with a large cast iron dome and cupola.  287 feet, 5 1/2  inches tall.  The cupola is capped with the Statue of Freedom.  Extensive info available offsite at the official Architect of the U.S. Capitol site, with detailed building histories, photos, drawings, and virtual tours.  The U.S. Senate offers visiting information and a virtual tour on their site.  The Library of Congress website includes an exhibit called the Temple of Liberty.  It chronicles the design, construction, and development of the capitol through a cornucopia of historic drawings and photos.  The website of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society includes other historical exhibits of the building and its contents.

A picture of the garden sculpture made from the old U.S. capitol columns is available onsite.  Offsite, the U.S. National Arboretum offers a short photo essay on the structure.  The visitingdc.com site also offers this photo.

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