Old State House, Broadway, bounded by Madison, Clinton & Lewis Streets, Frankfort

Source document Quoted word for word from HABS KY,37-FRAFO,1-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky Owner or custodian: State Custodian of Public Buildings Address; Frankfort, Kentuc ky Bate built: Begun in Spring, and (approx) finished in Fall, Architect Gideon Shryock or builder: Present Fair; necessary repairs being condition: neglected. Number of stories: Two Material used Exterior: Kentucky marble. in construction: Interior partitions: Brick and frame, plastered. Roof: Frame construction covered with standing seam tin, except dome, which is copper as originally. Floors; Marble, wood, cement, linoleum.

The stone flagging and steps of the portico were covered with concrete in Description; The following is a copy of an article architectural whioh appeared in "Atkinson's Casket", and historical a magazine published at Philadelphia, in December, page Unfortu- nately the picture of the building to which reference is made, had been removed from the magazine before it became the property of the Kentucky Historical Society. KV. 37- FftfcFO 2 "The annexed beautiful and accurate representa- tion of this building was taken with a Camera Obscura, by- Mr. Bramborough, an English artist, who recently passed through Frankfort, The lucid and graphical description which follows, was furnished by Mr, Gideon Shryock, the accomplished architect, who planned the building and superintended its construction.

"This building is situated in the town of Frankfort, near the centre of a public square, which is handsomely covered with blue-grass, and planted with various ornamental trees. "The front elevation of the building presents a Hexastyle Portico, of the Ionic order, the proportions of which are taken from the temple of Minerva Polias, at Priene, in Ionia. "The exterior walls presents a smooth surface of polished marble of a light grey colour, obtained from inexhaustible quarries on the banks of the Kentucky River, near Frankfort. The Portico is built of darker grey marble. The columns are four feet in diameter and thirty feet in height, supporting a marble pediment and entabla- ture which is continued entirely around the building.

The whole of the roof is covered with copper; from the middle of it arises the cupola, the basement of which is formed by a square pedestal of twenty-five feet on each side; which rises two feet from the apex of the roof; and on which is placed a circular lantern, twenty-two feet in diameter and twenty feet high, surmounted by a hemi- spherical dome. The flanks of the building have side doors to enter a passage leading across the house; and the rooms appropriated for the Federal Court and Court of Appeals. "The length of the building, including the Portico, is one hundred and thirty-two feet, its breadth in front is seventy feet.

The main entrance is at the south end, by a flight of marble steps extending along the whole of the front, and rising four feet high to the Portico, which projects eleven feet from the front wall of the house. "The door opens into a vestibule, twenty feet broad and thirty-three feet long; having a committee room of the same size on either side, and a lobby In front leading to the stairway, which is of marble and enclosed by a circular wall, having an entrance in front and on either side, and is lighted from the Cupola above by twelve large windows. The ascent is by a straight flight of steps to a large platform about five feet high; from HA86 3T-F<\Afo 3 each end of there is a circular flight, which traverses the circular wall and meets in a platform at the top.

The stairway leads to a lobby (on the second floor) thirty-five feet square, having the well-hole of the stairs (which is enclosed in an iron railing) in the centre. From this lobby there are doors communicating with the sev- eral apartments of the second story. This part of the building is arched with a spandrel dome, the angular spaces are filled with pendentiv-es, terminating in a circular ring, on which a C5>"lindrical wall is built, supporting the Cupola.

The interior of the dome is finished with raised panels and ornamented with stucco, superbly executed; and produces that pleasing magic effect usual with a vast concave in such a situation, "The Senate Chamber is on the second floor in the front part of the house; being thirty-three feet broad by sixty-two feet long; having a spacious lobby with elevated seats at one end, separated from the Chamber by two Ionic columns and proper antia; supporting a full entablature; the frieze and cornioe continued entirely around the room; the ceiling richly ornamented with square sunk parcels i The floor is covered with a rich durable carpet, made in the Penitentiary; and is occupied by the mahogany chairs and tables of the Senators, "The Representative Hail is in the opposite end of the second story, being forty-eight feet broad and sixty-two feet long, and having a lobby and gallery on the south side of the room.

The ceiling of this room is also elegantly finished with square sunk pan^els and other orna- ments in stucco. Behind the speaker's chair hangs an elegant full length portrait of Lafayette, executed by Jewett, at the order of the State, "The building was commenced in the Spring of and finished in the Fall of and cost ninety- five thousand dollars". Daniel M. Bowmar, Managing Editor of the "Woodford Sun", Versailles, Kentucky, quotes the following: "General Jarres Wilkerson, by deed in the Woodford County Clerk1s office, conveyed to Andrew Holmes a body of land 'including the tovirn of Frankfort1, In another old deed, Andrew Holmes conveys to the State the site of the first permanent capitol building in Frankfort".

{ - m In these halls the political history of Kentucky was enacted for nearly eighty years, and in them has "been heard the oratory of hundreds of distinguished Kentuckians ,. Henry Clay, George M, Bibb, John J. Crittenden, James T. Morehead, Joseph R, Underwood, Thomas Metcalfe, Archibald Dixon, John' B. Thompson, Lazarus Powell, John C. Breckinrldge,. Garret Davis, James Guthrie, James B. Beck, John 3. Williams, J, C, S. Blackburn, John G.-Carlisle, James B. McCreary, William Lindsay, Thomas E. Paynter, William 0. Bradley and all Kentucky United States SGnators elected by the Legislature up to the time the change In the mode of election was adopted, were elected in this building.

The Constitutional Convention of and held their sessions here, and the Border States Convention in an attempt to preserve peace between the sections of the country, met in the building from Hay 27 to June 3, During a very briefr occupation of Frankfort by Con- federate Troops in October, Richard Hawes was inaugu- rated "provisional Governor" of Kentucky under the Confederate Government, This ceremony, which took place in the Old State House, was interrupted by the approach of Federal troops who drove the Confederates from the scene, and replaced the Stars and Stripes on the donie of the building, from which the flag had been taken down.

All Governors of Kentucky since with the exception of two, were inaugurated in the building or on its grounds, until The building was closed for several years after the new Capitol was completed in and a portion of it opened for the use of the Frankfort Public Library for a few years, When the United States went into the World War in it was used for the Government Shirt Depot, and so used until the end of the War. In the summer of after having been repaired a nd made suitable for the purpose, the building became the home of the Kentucky State Historical Society, which has its Museum in the old Senate and Representative Halls,.and the Library and Archives Departments on the first floor. IO^^I *c^ Addendum To; HABS No.

STATE HOUSE, OLD Broadway, bounded by Madison, Clinton and Lewis Streets i / 1 f1 c Frankfort " rfnO-^ Franklin County ' Kv/ PHOTOGRAPHS HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY National Park Service Department of the Interior Washington,