Pennsylvania State Capitol
The Pennsylvania State Capitol is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It was designed by Joseph Miller Huston in 1902 and completed in 1906 in a Beaux-Arts style with decorative Renaissance themes throughout. The capitol houses the legislative chambers for the Pennsylvania General Assembly, made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the Harrisburg chambers of the Supreme and Superior Courts. It is also home to the offices of the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor. The Capitol was the subject of a graft scandal when the architect, Joseph Huston, and four others were convicted of graft for price gouging.
About Pennsylvania State Capitol in brief
The Pennsylvania State Capitol is the seat of government for the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It was designed by Joseph Miller Huston in 1902 and completed in 1906 in a Beaux-Arts style with decorative Renaissance themes throughout. The capitol houses the legislative chambers for the Pennsylvania General Assembly, made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the Harrisburg chambers of the Supreme and Superior Courts. It is also home to the offices of the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor. The current capitol, known as the Huston Capitol, is the third state capitol building to be built in Harrisburg. The first, the Hills Capitol, was destroyed in 1897 by a fire and the second, the Cobb Capitol was left unfinished when funding was discontinued in 1899. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006; the boundaries of the designation were expanded to include the Capitol Complex in 2013 with the capitol as a contributing property. The Capitol is often referred to as a “palace of art” because of its many sculptures, murals and stained-glass windows, most of which are Pennsylvania themed or were made by Pennsylvanians. The state government was originally in Philadelphia, then was relocated to Lancaster in 1799 and finally to Harrisburg in 1812. The legislature met in the old Dauphin County courthouse for the next decade until a new capitol was constructed. In 1872, Pennsylvania’s collection of Civil War battle flags, which accumulated in 1866, was moved from the State Arsenal to the second floor of the cap Capitol.
By the early evening of February 2, 1897, smoke was discovered coming from the Governor’s offices in the Capitol Building. Abraham Lincoln, then-elect as president-elect, lay in state in the state Capitol after his assassination in 1865. The flags were moved again, in 1895, to the Executive, Library and Museum Building and then to the Capitol Museum in 1872. In 1998, the Capitol was restored to its original state of its former glory. It has been the home of the Pennsylvania State Senate since 1822 and the State Assembly since 1828. The State Capitol was the subject of a graft scandal when the architect, Joseph Huston, and four others were convicted of graft for price gouging. The construction and subsequent furnishing cost three times more than the General Assembly had appropriated for the design and construction; architect, Huston and four other were convicted in 1822. TheCapitol’s construction and furnishing was estimated to have cost $244,500. The people of Pennsylvania have visited the Capitol more than 4,500 times, including the Marquis de Lafayette in 1825 and Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1860, and Abraham Lincoln in 1861, as well as the President of the United States in 1861. The Pennsylvania State Legislature met in Philadelphia from 1782 to 1789. The seat of the state government met in Quaker meeting houses or at private residences in Philadelphia until 1799.
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This page is based on the article Pennsylvania State Capitol published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
