Pennsylvania’s Capitol building in Harrisburg may well be the country’s most magnificent state headquarters. It’s certainly true that when it was built, the state spared no expense in marble and art and furniture.
It’s also true that a lot of that money disappeared into shady transactions, leading to four state officials and the architect being jailed for corruption.
So, you get the bitter with the sweet. As well as a $125 bootblack stand for $1,619, a $325 barbershop counter for $3,257 and a total cost over $13 million on a $4 million budget. But that’s all money under the bridge now, and the building is worth an afternoon’s visit.
The tall rotunda gives plenty of deep views; top image is inside the dome.
Its general style could be labeled Beaux Arts, but a lot of its artwork follows Renaissance styles and the dome is a near copy from St Peter’s in the Vatican. It opened in 1906, although the last of the murals and statuary wasn’t in place until 1927. Completion was followed within a few years by the Depression and limited maintenance.
By 1982, things had reached the point that the state legislature created a Capital Preservation Commission to restore the historic flags, the peeling murals and general disrepair. The work included restoring the Senate chamber, which at one point was flooded with 26,000 gallons of water.
On its centennial in 2006, it was designated a National Historic Landmark.
My interest in the Capitol was originally mainly in the floor tiles of the Rotunda; they are the work of Pennsylvania scholar/artist/teacher/industrialist and more Henry Chapman Mercer and his Moravian Pottery and Tile Works.
Mercer and his staff produced over 16,000 square feet of ceramic tiles including “377 mosaics, representing 254 scenes, artifacts, animals, birds, fish, insects, industries and workers from Pennsylvania history.”
The “four forces of civilization” mark the four corners just below the dome; they’re by Edwin Austin Abbey, who also created the four allegorical scenes between them which are meant to “symbolize Pennsylvania’s spiritual and industrial contributions to modern civilization.” No small thoughts here!
The bronze doors, designed by the architect of the building, Joseph Miller Huston, hide a secret or two. The main panels show scenes from Pennsylvania history, while the small heads around the edges are busts of people who were important in building the capital, including some of those who went to jail. The bust of Huston himself swings up to reveal the keyhole.
If some of the spaces and especially the staircases remind you a bit of the Palais Garnier opera house in Paris, it shouldn’t be a surprise; Garnier’s work had a wide influence.
Even details as minor as a fire hose cabinet got careful detailing. And we won’t keep reminding ourselves that no one was watching the budget…
