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Understanding 9/11tv Kentucky Old State Capitol CSPAN August 28, 2017 5:02pm-5:15pm EDT
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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 it's a national historic landmark but a functional government building. i would say that 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. so for about 79 years, this is where all of kentucky state government met. the reason why frankfurt was chosen, it's one of the four
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smallest buildings in the united states. the citizens offered the doors, the locks, the hinges, the lumber and a sum of $3,000. which had t we had the most resources to start a capitol here. this building was our third state capitol building. 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.
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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 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. they paid $150 premium. in 1872, 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. that was very unusual for the time. lots of greek elements throughout the building.
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lots of columns, ionic columns. lots of things to make you think of ancient grease. ancient greece. the building itself from the front is meant to look like an ancient greek temple, that's why there are no windows on the 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 one of the most important things that they come to see. it 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 modern convenience, you'll see that
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keystone. what also makes the staircase significant is how they went about building the staircase. the architect had a lot of help. he did not do it on his own. it was built using 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 site during that time. one thing that makes him very interesting is that he invented a steam-powered saw that enabled him to fit one of these steps into the next one. they fit very much like puzzle pieces, one into the other. each stare is placed flush against the wall and wooden supports were placed underneath them on either side. once the staircase or once the stairs got to the top and they were ready for the keystone,
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there was a pulley system of either men on either side of that stone. they raised it up, shoved that sandstone in. it's about 8 inches into the wall. and because the space they shoved it in and the pressure wñ that stone, it forced all of the other stairs downward. there are no iron bars in the wall. that's what the legislators saw 180 years ago. nothing has changed. around 1890, they really started to look at this building and think that it was in disrepair. it was going to need a lot of work and it was going to be very expensive to do so. that's when they began thinking about building a new capitol building and they had received war reparations. they had a little over a million dollars to build a new building and they thought that maybe frankfurt wasn't the right place for the capitol anymore. they thought maybe a larger
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city, like lexington or louisville. they wanted to do what was best for the commonwealth and went back and forth between lexington and louisville and two gentlemen who were local judges in the town, in frankfurt, thought if we choose lexington or louisville, we'll be going against all of the citizens who offered up all of those resources and all of that money to keep the capitol here time and time again. in the end, they chose to keep frankfurt as the state capitol. this was the only building operated by the koconfederate army. they were inaugurating their governor in this building when they heard distant shelling and the confederates inaugurated richard haas, the second
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confederate governor in kentucky. as soon as that inauguration was complete, they heard the shelling and they got out of town. they burned bridges as they were leaving town in order to keep those troops at bay. the union soldiers came in and the union used this building as a baracks during the civil war. right in this doorway is where they were inaugurating mr. haas right before shelling started and they were out of the building shortly before the union army took it over. there are some original pieces that were in the room during the time that they used the building. the individual representative desks that you see here are reproduction. 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 is the person who would be responsible for taking care of the vote in the house chamber of
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any piece of legislation that was voted on. in my opinion, he would have been speaker of the house right-hand man in here. also, we have the speaker of the house desk and chair. again, another original piece to the building. a lot of great detail work on that chair and on the desk. and then the other pieces that are original to the room, we have two desks in the very far corner over here that are original to this building. all these desks are representative desks. they are individual representatives in the room. we're in the senate chamber of the old state capitol. a little on layout of the room and where people were positioned in the room. the desks in the center were the senators' desks. when we they used this building, we had 38 senators. to the side of the desk, you'll
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see the visitor's gallery. if you happen to be in frankfurt and the legislation was in session, anyone was welcome to come in and have a seat. towards the center, tmuch like the chamber, he would have had the lead role in this room. 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 keeping all of the records of the senate as well as administering the vote when they voted on any piece of legislation in the room. and towards the right of the president'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
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because they were represented in this room. just a couple of 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 not it would enter in on the union or the confederate side or not enter in at all and remain neutral, every piece of legislation happened in this chamber and in the senate and also in the house of representatives. ultimately, kentucky decided to remain neutral for a period of time and then they came back to the drawing board and entered in on the side of the union. at one point in time, this building, like we spoke about earlier, was taken over by the confederate army. once the confederates were treated from the building, the union took it over and this room was actually used as a barracks for the union army. all of the desks were pushed
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over and a camp was set up for a period of time in order to restore order in frankfurt and make sure that the confederate army would not return to frankfurt. you can imagine what it would have been like here, all of these desks shoved over into one corner. at that point in time, the legislature was no longer in the building. they had actually left town days before the confederate army took over the building. this particular room was used as a baracks. they actually slept in this room. this building is significant not only to the commonwealth but to frankfurt because the architectural features in it, the fact that it was a public building, the fact that during the civil war, nothing happened to this building. yes, it was taken over by the confederate army and union army but it still stands today. absolutely nothing happened to this building other than they
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taking it over. every piece of war legislation decided on during that period of time was decided on in these two chambers, whether kentucky would remain neutral happened in these two chambers. all of those things are very significant and not many places can say they have both an old and new capitol. >> my name's bill parks. welcome to the state capitol of oklahoma. let's spend a little time looking at a beautiful building. start here with salmon layton. this is a 1915 drawing of the capitol. and i show this to folks so they understand the dome was a part of the plan in the beginning. the building was built without the dome between 1914 and 1917,
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