Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American Libraries
TV News
Understanding 9/11tv Kentucky Old State Capitol CSPAN August 28, 2017 1:15pm-1:28pm EDT
1:15 pm
would be participating in. there was certainly some controversy after the artwork was installed. the very first piece to go in was the labors of the hand. which including a depiction of a farmer with a bull and there was lots of media coverage about how the bull was a square bull and it looked like it was produced with a t square. and what kind of bull has those kinds of lines and the surprise ing thing was -- the citizens of nebras nebraska. the capitol is a wonderful national historic landmark.
1:16 pm
a functional government building. i would say there's not a lot of awareness about what happens behind the scenes and the fact that we have this collection and we're definitely working to promote the awareness of these materials. >> we are standing in the house chamber of the old state capitol. this building was built in 1830, began construction in 1827 and it was used as a capitol building from 1830 to 1909. for 79 years, this is where all of kentucky state government met. the reason why frankfurt was chosen, it's one of the four smallest buildings in the united states. the citizens of frankford -- we
1:17 pm
had the most resources and the most money to start a capitol here. the two previous capitol buildings that sat on the spot burned to the ground. this building is here, even though there is a current capitol building. it is a way to commemorate what went on in this building. they really thought long and hard about whether they wanted to keep it here in frankfurt, eventually they did. and they thought about whether they wanted to put the capitol on this new property. it spared this building from being torn down the architecture of this building is very unique. built in the greek revival style of architecture. the architect was a man by the name of gideon schrock. the two previous capitol
1:18 pm
buildings that sat on the site had burned to the ground. you would think after two previous buildings burning to the ground, they would find a different location. apparently the third time was the charm, this one's been here 181 years. the legislation put together a contest to find the architect. he submitted his designs, he won and in 1827 they began construction on this building, and three years after that, in 1830 it was complete. and this particular building was the first public building in greek revival style west of the allegheny mountains. lots of greek elements throughout the building. lots of columns, ionic columns. lots of things to make you think of ancient grease. the building itself from the front is meant to look like an ancient greek temple, that's why there are no windows on the
1:19 pm
building. a lot of the elements down here are meant to make you think of the greek style of architecture. when people visit the old state capitol, this is a freestanding or floating stone staircase. the only thing that supports the staircase and keeps it in place is a large trapezoid stone in the middle of the staircase. it's meant to look like a reclining arch and all arches have to have a keystone in order to keep them in place. if you look beyond that you will see the stone. what also makes the staircase significant is how they went about building the staircase he had a lot of help, he did not do it on his own. the staircase was built using
1:20 pm
slave labor it was the time of slave labor. if you're going to have prisoners in the building, you have to have someone here who's going to make sure they take care of the job the warden was always on time during that time. he invented a steam powered saw. they fit very much like puzzle pieces, one right into the other each stair is placed flush against the wall and wooden supports were placed underneath them on either side. once the staircase or the stairs got to the top, they were ready for the keystone, there was a pulley on either side of that stone. it's about eight inches into the wall. because the space they shoved it in and the pressure of the stone, it forced all the other
1:21 pm
stairs downward to the base. that's what's held it here for 181 years. the staircase is what those legislators saw 181 years ago, nothing has changed. around 1890, it needed a lot of work and was going to be expensive to do so. that's when they began thinking about building a new capitol building. they had the money, they had a little over a million dollars to build a new building. they started to think frankfurt wasn't the right place for a capitol any more. cities that have more opportunities for the citizens and they wanted to do what was best for the commonwealth. they went back and forth between lexington and louisville.
1:22 pm
two people who are local judgs,s we're going to be going against those gentlemen who worked from the beginning to keep the capitol here time and time again. in the end they chose to keep frankfurt as the state capitol. this building was the only building occupied by the capitol. the confederates were inaugurating their governor in this building when they heard distant shelling, and they knew that the union army was coming the confederates inaugurated their second confederate governor in kentucky. as soon as it was complete they heard the shelling and went thsh they got out of town. they burned bridges as they were leaving town in order to keep those troops at bay.
1:23 pm
the union used this building as a barracks during the civil war right in this doorway is where they were inewing our ating. as we move around the room here, another reason this room is significant, there are original pieces in the room during the time they used the building. the representatives you see here are reproductions. the pieces that are original to the building are the pieces toward the front of the room. on this side we have the clerk's desk or the scribe. that is the person who would be responsible for taking the vote on any piece of legislature that was voted on. he would have been the speaker of the house. we have the speaker of the house
1:24 pm
another original piece to the building. the other pieces that are original to the room, we have two desks in the far corner over here that are original to this building. they're individual representatives in the room. we're in the senate chamber of the state capitol. a little bit on the layout of the room, the desks in the center of the room were the senator's desk, and when they use this building, we had 38 senators, you will see all 38 desks here in the middle of the room. to the side of the dish, you will see the visitors gallery, if you happen to be in frankfurt and the legislature was in session, anyone was welcome to come in and have a seat.
1:25 pm
toward the center of the room, you would have the senate president. he would have the lead role in this building or in this room. to the left of the president of the senate you would have a tiny desk up front, that is the clerk's desk. that gentleman is responsible for keeping all the records of the senate as well as administering the vote when they voted on any piece of legislation in the room. and toward the right of the president of the senate's podium, you have a table with several chairs, that was for the frankfurt press or the local newspaper. if you could not be in frankfurt for the legislative proceedings you could have read about it in any of the local papers. they were represented in this room. >> just a couple other things to note about this particular room, when kentucky was deciding whether or not it was going to enter the civil war, whether or
1:26 pm
not it would enter in on the union or the confederate side, every piece of legislation including those neutrality debates happened in this chamber and the senate and also in the house of representatives. kentucky decided to remain neutral for a period of time, they came back and entered in on the side of the union. this building like we spoke about earlier was taken over by the confederate army, once the confederates retreated, the union took it over and this room was used as a barracks for the union army. all the desks you see in here or the desks that would have been in here at the time were pushed over in the corner of the room and a camp was set up in this room for a period of time in order to restore order in frankfurt and to make sure the confederate army would not return to frankfurt. you can imagine what it would
1:27 pm
have been here. all these desks shoved over in disarray. the legislature was no longer in the building, they had actually left town, days before the corn fed rat army took over the building opinion this room was used as a barracks, those union sold yishs slept in this room. this building is significant not only to the commonwealth, but to frankfurt, because the ago tour toural features in it, the fact that it was one of the first public buildings. the fact that during the civil war, nothing happened do this building. it was taken over by the confederate army and the union army, it still stands today. there's absolutely nothing happening to this building other than them taking it over. every piece of civil war legislation that was decided on during that period of time was decided on in these two chambers, whether kentucky would remain neutral and enter the war happened in these two
49 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
CSPAN3
Television Archive 
Television Archive News Search Service 
Uploaded by TV Archive on
