olympia snowe and his son from a previous marriage who tragically died when he was in college from a previously undetected heart condition. as we tour through the building, we see certainly in comparison to other buildings of this type throughout the country, other state houses, other capitol buildings that our building is somewhat plain, somewhat simple. there's no opulence at the maine state house. there's nothing at the maine state house that will take a person's breath away. but its very simple nature speaks volumes for the pure puritan ethic. the perfect word for a description for someone from maine is frugal. that's an excellent portrait -- or picture of the people of maine and the entire state.

we are standing in the originally 18th century portion of the maryland state house. it's also a space which between november of 1783 and august of 1784 was a home of congress then operating under the articles of confederation. three of the most important events in the history of the united states took place in this room in that nine-month period between november of 1783 and august of 1784. amazingly we're standing in the third state house on this particular site. the first state house was hit by lightning in 1704, burned to the ground and was replaced by a state house that was finished in 1707. that building remained the primary state house until the 1760s when in 1769 legislation was passed to build this state house, the third state house on the present site.

construction began in 1772 and was completed in 177 9. the current state house also two previous state houses stand on the highest point in annapolis which would afford a commanding view of the harbor and the surrounding landscape in the 17th and 18th centuries this would have been the tallest building in town. it is still the tallest building in town. the state house was build in the midst of a war which complicated efforts to both complete the state house and to direct the efforts of government. in 1779 the first session of the general assembly was held, which took place in november of 1779. every session of the general assembly's been held in this building since then making this state house the oldest state house in continuous legislative use. we're standing in the northeastern corner of the building, so we are deep in the original 18th century portion of the state house. so this is a space that while it was in primary use by the maryland senate, its national significance and what makes this maryland's most important room are for the events that took place in that nine-month period.

the primary one, the one that gains most national attention is whoo occurs when george washington stands before the members of congress to formerly return his military commission to congress. washington's resignation which took place in this very room which was an event really without precedent in the history of the world. there was some questions to whether washington, the victorious general, would become king or what he would do to sort of move the new nation in a new direction. and so it was really important that what he ultimately decided was that the power of the military belonged in the hands of the civilian government. two weeks after that, on january 14th, 1784, the treaty of paris is ratified in this room, the event which formally ends the american revolution, makes annapolis the first peacetime capital of the united states. in may of 1784, thomas jefferson is appointed minister and sent to france to join adams and franklin as the united states'

first appointed foreign ambassador. we are on the verge of restoring this room the old senate chamber back to its original 18th century appearance. it's a project that's been under way since 2006 when we began chasing moisture infiltration issue in the rear corner of the room. there was tremendous amount of evidence that no one realized survived the dismantling of this room. the 1876 dismantling turned this room from an 18th century space into a victorian space really without any evidence of how it looked when washington and congress were here. so where we are now is we're about to begin the physical restoration of this space. for the past several years the state of maryland has been working to do almost a csi for historic buildings looking at all evidence of the original 18th century materials that remain in the room from nailing

blocks to evidence of door trims and moldings and original paints. and the only space which survived the 1876 restoration, the president's niche to figure out exactly how this room looked which will be with photographic and other visual evidence. when this restoration is complete, visitors will be able to walk into a space that is truly evocative of how this room appeared when congressmen in annapolis in 1783 and '84 and it will look as close as we can to how it appeared on december 23rd, 1783, when washington resigned his commission. right now we're still in the original portion of the maryland state house, part built in the 18th century. we're standing in the old house of delegates chamber used from 1779 until they moved into their current legislative chambers in 1905. it's set up today to reflect how the room appeared following the

renovations that occurred throughout the entire state house between 1876 and 1877. the 19th century was a fairly tumultuous time in maryland. it's a time when marylanders were struggling for additional rights, equality and whether the nation -- or whether the state was going to join the union or the confederacy. it's a space where in the 1820s a legislator from western maryland named thomas kennedy worked to pass an act to allow jews the right to hold public office. it's a room where in 1864 maryland debated slavery and where in 1864 slavery was abolished by debates in this room by the constitution of 1864 which would have been taken place in this room. in 1867, marylanders again debated the passage of a new constitution, one in which it was passed in 1867 is the foundation for our current state constitution. the state house dome is one of the most iconic and recognizable symbols of the maryland state house. but a lesser known fact is it is

actually not the first dome to cover this building. when the building is completed in 1779, it's topped by a small undersized -- which is decried for all sorts of architectural problems, it leaks and part hit by a hurricane. by the 1780s being described as bimt contrary to all laws of modern architecture. in 1785, less than two years after congress was in annapolis, construction begins on a new dome to the state house that they of course have to dismantle the original and it takes them about 12 years to complete it. the construction on the exterior begins in 1787, completed about 1797, largest all wooden dome in the united states and it's built entirely without structural nails. it's held together with joints and elaborate iron strapping which it's truly an architectural masterpiece. the dome annapolis' most

recognizable symbol almost as soon as it's put up. truly most spectacular thing guilded acorn, a reproduction of the original 18th century acorn. and it is topped by a lightning rod which was designed to benjamin franklin specification. in the 19th century during the war of 1812, the state house dome is used as a lookout. it's the tallest point in town and forwards a commanding view of the river and chesapeake bay. so we have tremendous documentation of william barney, son of maryland's hero joshua barney going to the state house dome and using his excellent glass to observe troop movements on their way back and forth up the bay in september of 1814. we have now ventured out of the 18th century portion of the state house and into what we call the new annexed part bimt between 1902 and 1905 by baltimore architects. the new annex, as we call it, certainly added a grand entrance to look at the outside you see a

very grand set of steps which lead to a pair of massive bronze doors adorned with state seal and important state symbols. we are now standing on the floor of house of delegates chamber. one of the spaces that's added in the new annex. it's a side of the building that houses both legislative chambers. what they ended up with was a truly grand space with 20-foot ceilings in every space including bathrooms in this building. it was truly a remarkable structure. the addition of five tiffany skylights was part of the contract to build this. this room, the house of delegates chamber has the largest of the five skylights. the move into the new chambers afforded much larger quarters for the delegates and senators. and also added suitable visitor galleries above the chambers that members of the public could use to watch the proceedings without impinging upon the space for elected officials. across the hall in the senate

chamber are two mockettes, sort of small size versions of statues of charles of carolton and john hanson. the full size version are in statuary hall at the u.s. capitol. these have been here since those statues were completed in 1907 and have been on the desk and appear in every photograph of the chamber that we have. john hanson is probably best known for being the first president of the congress operating under the articles of confederation. so there are some that consider hanson to be the first president of the united states. charles carol of carolton, one of maryland's four signers of the declaration of independence was the only roman catholic signer of the declaration. the grounds that you see today around the state house have encircled the state house since the 17th century when it is first laid out. as a result you have a really interesting combination of buildings and monuments and memorials. directly outside of the original front entrance is a statue of

roger -- built by william henry rinehart. it was designed to be a memorial to chief justice who before he was supreme court justice was attorney general of maryland. and so placement of that monument directly outside of the original front entrance of the state house has over time become an increasingly polarizing symbol of tawny's role of the dred scott decision. the placement of the thurgood marshal statue was done very intentionally to kind of offset the tawny memorial and to really allow us to interpret two very important pieces of maryland history that rather than remove the tawny statue, its presence on the ground of the state house allows us to talk about who tawny was and what the significance of the dred scott decision was. what that meant for enslaved people in maryland and really throughout the united states. the two bronze figures in the

thurgood marshal memorial are designed to be two children who are to represent the school children affected by the brown versus board of ed decision. and that collectively those two statues really allow us to talk about the changes and the expansion of rights and the challenges that citizens in maryland and throughout the united states needed to address in both the 19th century and in the 20th century. the martin luther king jr. memorial plaque which was installed a few years ago is a way of paying tribute to another important african-american leader who in addition to having an important and obviously well documented impact on the entire united states, also had some pretty important things that took place in maryland. shortly before the march on washington in king's address on the grounds of the lincoln memorial, king gave a version of that speech at morgan state university in baltimore. and it was essentially a first draft of the "i have a dream" speech. and the king memorial on the

grounds is a way for us to pay tribute to that particular speech which became the foundation for the internationally recognized "i have a dream" speech. the maryland state house is truly representative of the entire history of maryland, from the founding of its first in strks mary city in 1635 all the way through the passage of current legislation that took place in this building in 2000 and during the 2013 legislative session. it's a remarkable structure. and we are all very cognizant of the fact we are the oldest state house in continuous legislative use and it's something we take great pride in. and it's something we continue to work to make sure that both marylanders and people in the entire nation know the significance of this building. >> welcome to the new york state capitol. here atop the state street hill in albany, this amazing building has served as the center for new york state's government since the mid 1