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Understanding 9/11tv Kentucky Old State Capitol CSPAN August 26, 2017 1:33am-1:46am EDT
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there was certainly some controversy after the artwork was installed. the very first piece to go in was the labors of the hand including a depiction of a farmer with a bull. and there was lots of media coverage about how the bull looked like a square bull and what kind of bull has those keends of lines. squchl the surprising thing was it was not just in the lincoln paper but covered nationally in 1956. i would say that the citizens of nebraska are very aware of the gem they have here in the capitol city, that the capitol is a wonderful national historic landmark but a functional government building. i would say that there's not a
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lot of awareness about what happens behind the scenes and the fact that we have this collection. and ware definitely working to promote the awareness of these materials. we are standing in the house dh chamber of the old state capitol. this pilding was actually built in 1830, and used at a capitol building from 1830 to 1909. the reason why frankfurt was chosen as a capitol, because it's one of the four smallest capitol buildings in the united states, the citizens of frankfurt offered up the tools and that's why frankfurt was chosen as the capitol.
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because we said the most resources and the money. the two previous state capitols that sat on the spot, burned to ground. it is a kind of way to commemorate what wept on in this building. when they were thinking about building the kusht capitol building, they wanted to think about whether they wanted to teep it here in frankly, which they did and whether they wanted to put it on the capitol. the architecture on this building is very stwr, very uni. 25 years old, and this was his very first job. and the two previous capitol
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billedings that had sat on the site burned to the ground. apparently third time was deform because this one has been here 181 years. they made $150 premium, he submitted his designs. he won. and three years after three in 1830, it was complete. and this particular building was the first public building. lots of greek elements throughout the building. lots of columns, lots of things to make you think of ancient greeks. the building itself from the very front is made to look like an ancient dpreek temple. that's why there are no windows
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on the front of the building. this staircase is one of the most significant pieces in the building. when people visit the old state capitol, this is one of the important things they come to see. the staircase is meant to look like a reclining arch or an arch turned on its side. if you look beyond that wonderful convenience of a projector, you will see that large trapezoid stone or t hfr stone. what's also significant is how they went about building the staircase. it was built using slaver labor because it was the time of
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slivery, skilled craft labor and also prison labor. you have to have someone here to make sure they take carol of the job. the warden was always on site during that time. but one thing was interesting is he -- each stair is placed flush against the wall, and wooden supports were placed against each them on either side. there were a pulley system of each side of that sustain. they rise raise it up, they shove that stone in-touch it is about eight inches into the wall 3467 and because of the spates they suffered in and force of that stone, it held it to the
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base. there are no iron balls in the wall. it's just the staircase. nothing has changed. around 1990 they really started to see it was in derepair. it needed a lot of work, and it was going to be expensive to do so. and that's when they thought about building a new capitol building. and they had received money since the war reparation was over. and they started to think that maybe frankfurt wasn't the right place for the capitol anymore. they thought maybe a larger city like lexington, cities that have more opportunities for the citizens. and they went back and forth between lexington and -- and eventually two gentleman in the
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panel in frankfurt thought, you know, if we choose them, we're going to be going against all those gentleman who chose frankfurt in the very beginning, all those citizens who offered up resource and all that money to keep the capitol here time and time again. the confederates were actually inaugurating their governor in this building when they heard accident shelling, and they knew the union army was coming. richard halls was kelly the second confederate governor in kentucky. and a as soon as that inauguration was complete, they heard the shelling, and they got out of town. the union soldiers came in, and the union actually used this building as a barracks during
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the civil war. right in this doorway is where they were inaugurating mr. halls. and as we move around the room here, another reason this room is kig, there are some original pieces in the room. the pieces that are original to the building are the pieces towards the front of the room. on this side we have the clerk's desk or the scribe. that would be the person responsible for taking care of the vote in the house chamber in my opinion he would have been speaker of the house. again, an original piece to the
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building. a lot of detailed work to that chir and the rest. and we have two desks notice far corner over here that are originally to this wilding. we're in the senate chamber of the old state capitol. a little bit on the lay out of the room and where people positioned in this room. the desks in the st. of the room 'twere of course the sig dhr guests. so y'all seal all 38gusts here in the middle of the room. to the side of the desk you'll see the visitors gallery. if you happened to be in
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frankhearfran frankfurt, anyone was welcome. to the left of the president of the senate, you would have had a tiny little desk up front. that is the clerk's desk. that gentleman was responsible for keep lg tslagz. and to the right you've the chairs. if yougd t could not read about you could have in any of the local paperers. just a couple things to note about the civil car.
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when they happen deciding whether to enter, every piece of legislation happened in thhere. at one point in time this building like we spoke about earl consider was tiken over by the confederate army. once the confederates retreated from the building, the dwrun took it over. and use dub yuz was you'd for the confederate army. all the desks you see here at the time was pushed over to the idal of the room and a camp was setup. so kwloukd imagine what td have been like here, all these desks in disarray, shoved in one
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corner. that point in time the legislator was not actually in the building. they had left town days before the union arm ea took over the building. those union soldiers actually slept in this room. the architectural features in it, was the first of the buildings to have the architectural or zbreek style. absolutely nothing happened to this building other than taking it over. every piece of civil war sledge slagz decided on during that period of time was decide said on these two chambers. so all though thingser
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