1-Pager: The Virginia State Capitol
The gleaming-white Virginia State Capitol building is one of the finest brick buildings in America. The red bricks underneath the white paint & stucco were made from clay quarries along the bank of America’s “Founding River,” the James.
The Capitol is perched upon Shockoe Hill overlooking the James River — more precisely, it overlooked the James River until the early 1900s when skyscrapers began blocking the view. But, from 1798 when construction was finished until the 20th Century, the “temple on the hill” commanded both the height of the city and a view of the James, and if you were approaching Richmond by boat, as most people did in that era, one of the first things you saw was the outline of the State Capitol rising above everything else.
The Capitol is home to the oldest elected legislature in the Western Hemisphere, the Virginia General Assembly, established in 1619. The cornerstone was laid in 1785 with Governor Patrick Henry in attendance. But, the person most closely associated with the State Capitol is the second Governor of Virginia and architect of the building, Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson was serving as Ambassador to France when the Virginia government asked him to design a new capitol building. He studied several buildings from antiquity and decided to base his design for the exterior on the Maison Carrée (“square house”), a Roman temple in south France built around 5AD. This decision was revolutionary — it was a break from the British style of architecture that had been intrinsic to the British colonies. And it became the first monumental Roman-temple style building built in the modern era. It would influence the design of civic buildings for centuries. When you see a county courthouse, town hall, or federal building that looks like a Roman temple, you can thank Thomas Jefferson.
The defining architectural features of the Capitol are six columns (hexa-style, like “hexa-gon”) and a large triangle-shaped part (pediment) at the end of the roof. The columns are topped with capitals that look like scrolls (volutes), called Ionic style. Columns embedded into the walls (pilasters) wrap around the side and back of the main building (the large center portion is original, and the two wings were added in 1906). The front porch (portico) has a marble staircase leading up to it, with two low walls on each side. Today light poles stand there, but in ancient Rome, it is where orators such as Cicero or Antony would have stood to address “the people.” This architectural feature is called a podium, from the Latin word for “foot”.
There is much more to see inside the building, and we have only scratched the surface of its history. Inside, under the dome (yes, Virginia there is a domed capitol), is one of the greatest pieces of classical sculpture in America. The building is full of classical ornament and busts of great American figures, including eight US Presidents.
This is the first in a series of 1-page introductions to historic buildings. It is written for people who love history, architecture, buildings, & beautiful things and want to learn more but may not know where to begin.
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