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Understanding 9/11tv Louisiana Old State Capitol CSPAN August 28, 2017 2:57pm-3:08pm EDT
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the building up. richardson started on this beautiful staircase on the great western staircase but died. and then he was replaced by the final architect to work on the building, isaac perry. perry was a real, true lover of stone carving. he took the level of stone carving to new heights. i think that's what you see when you look at this staircase. he was the final architect to work on the building. construction started in 1867 and went on and on. there was lots of moaning about the length of time and the amount of money. it did cost $25 million. governor theodore roosevelt said, we're done, it's complete. marking the official end of the construction of of the capitol. though i think some other work
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did continue but that's the official end of the construction story. in 1899. we're standing in the second floor of the old state capitol on the mississippi river in baton rouge, louisiana. it was started in 1847 and completed in 1851. one of the only gothic state cap tols in the country. it is a replica of a castle. mark twain always had a big problem with it. he didn't like it. he thought it was too european or too gothic, so to speak, always very critical of it. nonetheless. it's one of a kind. in this exact building we had the secession of louisiana from the union. we had one of our past famous governors, huey long, was attempted to be impeached here. union troops occupied it during the civil war. it was actually -- interior was
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destroyed from a fire that the union troops were cooking inside, caught the building on fire and destroyed the entire interior. i wanted to point out to you the famous what we call the umbrella. umbrella because of the beautiful color scheme of the glass that we have that was done after the building was burnt in the civil war. it laid dormant for about 20 years. when it was rebuilt, many of the elder legislators who had served or were aware of it remember how dark it was in the old state capitol and insisted that the architect build this magnificent glass dome that is supported by this post down the middle. that's why we give it the famous name of just the umbrella. if it's a sunny day, a cloudy day, you can see the change in the glass. it's a magnificent focal point, right in the center of the building. it goes atop this spiral
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stairca staircase. this is also what we call the -- the hall of the governors where we depict all the louisiana governors along the wall. we have governor edwin edwards, who had served four terms as governor. here on this wall. below him is governor mckiffin. who was actually the father of the superdome in new orleans. i'll point out. under his administration, it was his idea with many members in new orleans that actually made possible the now superdome in new orleans, louisiana. our current governor, bobby jindal. who is depicted here. governor jindal was the first indian governor in the states. and just got elected to a second
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term and will be taking office in january. served also as our congressman for some time. this large portrait here is that of huey long. who was a u.s. senator and governor. this is -- as i indicated, he is also -- was attempted to be impeached here. it failed. and i will show you the room -- we'll bring you to the house chambers in a moment. where louisiana seceded from the union and the vote to bring his impeachment into the senate took place, as well as many other historic issues. governor blanco served during the katrina era. actually, i served under governor blanco for four years myself in the senate. i'll bring you now into the house chambers.
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beautiful room. as you can see, we bring forth the stained glass on both, as you'll see in both the house and senate side. this is the room that louisiana would have seceded from the union during the civil war. it would have been where they had many of the raging debates about louisiana lottery at the time, gambling, in that era. you can see on both sides of the fireplaces, of course, at that time this is how we heated the building. and -- >> what were some of the discussions during the talk about secession? >> i think one of the interesting things is that 80% of the delegates here to secede from the union were actual slave owners. so the outcome of that vote was pretty much pre-determined, to be quite honest. the mean or the average income of those individuals at that time exceeded $100,000. so you can imagine what $100,000
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was worth in those days, by today's standards. we have a gallery up top that visitors could come and witness the proceedings. and again, this is where huey long, where we would have had the initial vote taken to bring the impeachment hearings to the other side, the senate chambers, on huey long, only for it to fail in that hearing. >> talk about the man who was behind the effort to impeach governor long. >> well, actually, he was actually a relative of the family who donated the property for this building, and huey long, after that failed attempt, was so incensed about what occurred to him in this building that he just had a very poor taste in his mouth about it, and that was the impetus for him to build what is now the new state capitol, which was built in the 1930s by huey long. and it is still the building that is utilized today by the
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louisiana state legislature. the building in which i served. we are now going to enter the senate chambers, and as you can see, it's directly across from the house with the same stained glass windows on each side as they face one another. this room used to have fireplaces that have been since removed. through the fire, you know, the building has been brought back to its original status as best as could be. the one thing i do want to point out to you is this stained glass window here at the upper end. i don't know if your camera can catch that. we left the exposed wood that shows how it was charred during the fire. we decided to leave that upper in just for presentation, to show what occurred to the building, what it may have looked like in that period of time. back on the first floor of the
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old state capitol in baton rouge, getting ready to go into what used to be the governor's office as depicted in this marble plate on the floor. this would have been administrative type offices as you entered, secretaries and various other individuals. and then you would enter his office here. we have a desk that is depicted in this picture on the wall here that is actually huey long's desk. this would have been where -- the then time governor long would have operated from, and of course, as many places in historic buildings, if only the rooms could speak. my ex-colleague from the senate, now lieutenant governor darden, who was secretary of state at the time and i was his first assistant, had many a meeting in here with small groups for lunch. it was a great meeting venue to be able to bring individuals in, tell them stories about huey and
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to let them realize we were sitting in huey long's old office. >> does the history of huey long overshadow the history of other governors and their significance? >> i think it does. it's amazing. the entire career of huey long only spanned seven or eight years. his u.s. senate position and then his position here as governor. yet, it overlays over louisiana's history. i would think the only governor even close to that as far as being well known would be edwin edwards in more modern times who served four terms, not consecutively but came back and did serve four terms. huey long is depicted at the new state capitol. the monument you see out there is where he is buried. he is folk lore in louisiana politics. no doubt about it. it continues on to this day.
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>> what is it about louisiana that attracts interesting political figures? >> well, i think it's -- as best put, i mean, we talk about louisiana gumbo. louisiana is a collection of many, many nationalities, from french to spaniards, creoles, the irish, the german, that have landed here in louisiana and form a very eclectic group. to me it's a gumbo of individuals that, at the end of the day, becomes a very interesting sidebar to louisiana and its politics. on the date of huey long's assassination he was the u.s. soer senator he was in baton rouge visiting the legislature, in
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