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Understanding 9/11tv Ohio Statehouse Tour CSPAN August 28, 2017 5:28pm-5:38pm EDT
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in the background, some of them were wealthy enough to come up the arkansas river by boat. the artwork, i think, is what draws people -- what draws me to the building. what sets the building apart. and just the stories that go with the artwork. you know, across the way, we've got will rogers. will was an actor, a cowboy, good ambassador to the world. people need to know that will rogers was from oklahoma. around to the left there, we have sequoia, a cherokee who developed the cherokee alphabet. and just a wonderful story, because he was not literate in another language and came up with what ling quists say was the best way to write down the
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cherokee language. come to the capitol, come to the oklahoma state capitol and see this beautiful building, hear the stories, see what's going on in the capitol. welcome to the ohio statehouse. we often refer to it as the people's house. it is our grand state capitol and it has been operational since 1857. construction began in 1839 and it was finally officially completed in 1861. so we're standing here in this 150-year-old building in which we refer to as the grand rotunda, the centerpiece of our capitol building. in fact, there were seven different architects throughout the 22 years that it took to build and they disagreed on a
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number of things. however, they all agreed on essentially the same two things, that the building should be massive enough to house all branches of state government and that the most beautiful room should be for the people of ohio. the designers actually looked to the greeks. this is done in greek revival architecture. and it was truly built as a temple of democracy. ohio being a very, very young state, they wanted to proclaim to the rest of the country and the world, for that matter, that we were going to be politically important and we believed in the democratic ideals that the greeks essentially began. so it was finally completed just at the beginning of the american civil war. so it's done with a -- on the exterior. we're a happenedfndful of state that doesn't have a dome at the
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top. greeks did not use domes. they used the flat ceiling or roof as the cupula and it was said that domes did not become relevant until post civil war because the troops would march through the streets of washington, d.c., and it was an awe-inspiring image. so many architects from the west -- further west, they used that dome idea to design those statehouses. 120 feet above our heads is a stain glass seal of ohio as it was in 1861. as you gaze upon that seal, you notice the canal boat. ohio was a big part of the erere canal system. the seal has changed several times. however, the major part of the seal still exists with the hills
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of the sunrise. as you come down to the floor, the floor has a very interesting pattern. there are nearly 5,000 pieces of individually cut marble. but the center of the room is the most interesting it's said that it's a key to american history and the center circle houses 13 individual pieces of cut stone or cut marble and it's said that those represent the 13 original colonies and then around that are 32 points to the star burst because there were 32 states in the union when the floor was laid and the last band that binds all of those states together represents the u.s. constitution. the statehouse actually opened for business in 1857. the ground floor, the first floor and most of the building was completed minus the center
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of the statehouse. as the height grew, so did the time that it took to complete. so the legislature, both the house and senate, moved into the chambers in 1857 as did the governor. he moved into the brand-new governor's office and that first governor to reside in this building was salmon p. chase and later became the chief justice of the u.s. supreme court. i'd like to now take you inside the governor's office and take a look at the history that resides in this space. not only connected to some of ohio's historic governors and our country governor as well but also to abraham lincoln. let's take a look. it was in this room that abraham lincoln came to visit the sitting governor at the time, governor dennison. it was february 13th, 1861.
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he was in this statehouse, sitting across from governor dennison behind me. he was delivered a telegram and lincoln opened the telegram and indicated that the electoral college had met and ratified the voice of the people. he was truly the president-elect of the united states. the oath of office used to be taken in march. so lincoln was on his way from springfield to washington, d.c., and in many cases that same route during his funeral was retraced. he was once again here at the ohio statehouse when his funeral train came to columbus on april 29th, 1865. and abraham lincoln did lay in state in the grand rotunda for 6.5 hours. in that short amount of time, 50,000 people filed past the
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president's open casket. it was a phenomenal site sight to see people travel to pay their respects to the slain president. throughout the ohio statehouse, we have eight of our hearing rooms named after ohio's eight presidents. ohio sometimes referred to as the mother of presidents and here we are in the grant hearing room. ohioans loved grant. they believed slavery should not take place. and when grant won the victory and the surrender took place in virginia, he was proclaimed a hero. in each of our presidential hearing rooms, we've teamed up with the historical society.
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and many artifacts are very, very interesting. for example, here in the grant hearing room, we actually have a cigar that was smoked by president grant and it's on display for the public to see. now we're standing in the william mckinley hearing room. william mckinley, another great president that came from ohio, and this particular governor served as governor. he was president 1897 to 1901 much he was assassinated in office. he was in a receiving line in buffalo, new york, and william mckinley oftentimes wore a red carnation on his lapel while working as governor and again as the president that said a little
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girl about the sage of seven or eight, took it off and gave it to her. about four people later was the assassin at point blank range. he went on to live for several more days but infection had overcome the wound and he died shortly there aftafter. when the legislature here in ohio found out about his death, they immediately began crafting a bill, creating the red carnation as the state flower and it's a memorial to this great president and great ohio governor. >> there is a monument that said he would come and turn around and wave good-bye for the day.
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and then he, of course, would come into the statehouse and go to work. oftentimes we don't look at the other components of the monument. there's an adult male with a young boy and he represents prosperity and he's ushering youth into prosperity because it was william mckinley during the industrial reverend lulolution country became very prosperous. on the other side is an adult woman with a young girl and she represents peace and she's ushering youth into peace. we're very proud of that monument. it's in a grand location for all ohioans and for all to enjoy. this is a tribute to ohio as it was built as a
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