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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings

	UNITED STATES CAPITOL District of Columbia
Capitol Hill, Washington. Travel Itinerary The Architect of the Capitol

Ownership and Administration. U.S. Government; U.S. Congress.

Significance. An architectural masterpiece reminiscent of an ancient Roman temple, the Capitol of the United States sits on the crown of a hill dominating the Capital City. It is not only a national shrine but also a symbol of liberty to the free world and a monument to the hopes and aspirations of all mankind. Since 1800, except for one short period during and shortly after the War of 1812, it has been the seat of the Congress of the United States; the flag flies over it night and day. Within its walls, political forces affecting the destinies of our land have recurrently clashed in dramatic conflict. They have been resolved in the enactment of laws affecting the lives of all Americans. From the east portico most of the Presidents have taken their inaugural oath, and inside many have personally delivered their annual State of the Union messages to joint sessions of the Congress. In the Capitol, too, are preserved scores of priceless artworks and furnishings that commemorate historic events and leading citizens.

The Capitol sits on Jenkins Hill, as specified by Maj. Pierre Charles L'Enfant in his plan for Washington. In 1792 Dr. William Thornton, a physician by profession but an architect by avocation, won the architectural competition for a Capitol design. In 1793 George Washington laid the cornerstone. Soon thereafter construction began, workers using light gray sandstone from quarries in Aquia, Va. Dr. Thornton, appointed as official architect of the Capitol, clashed with a series of professional architects who wished to alter his design; in 1794 Stephen Hallet, who had been supervising the construction, was dismissed. Thornton then collaborated with James Hoban, the White House architect, and others. In 1800 Congress moved from Philadelphia to Washington and crowded into the newly finished north wing, the first to be completed.

In 1803, during Jefferson's administration, Benjamin H. Latrobe took over supervision of the construction and 4 years later completed the south wing. In August 1814, during the War of 1812, British troops invaded Washington and set fire to many buildings, including the incomplete Capitol, but a heavy rainstorm and a small group of patriots quenched the flames and saved it from complete destruction. In late 1814 Congress met in the Patent Office Building (formerly Blodgett's Hotel), the only Government office structure to escape burning, and from late 1815 until 1819 they met in a hastily constructed building, known as the Brick Capitol, which stood on the site of the present Supreme Court Building. Latrobe undertook restoration of the Capitol, but in 1817 Charles Bulfinch replaced him and completed the work 2 years later, at which time Congress returned.

In 1818 Bulfinch had begun construction of the central portion of the building, including the east and west fronts and the central rotunda. By 1824 the rotunda, having a wooden copper-covered dome, was essentially completed. Neither the Senate nor the House assumed any responsibility for the rotunda. For a few years a multitude of hucksters invaded it and turned it into a marketplace; they sold everything from fresh vegetables to ribbons and pianos.

In 1851, to provide Congress with better quarters, work began on the present House and Senate Chambers, extensions of the old north and south wings. By 1859 both had been essentially completed—of Massachusetts and Maryland marble. The House occupied its new quarters in 1857; the Senate in 1859. A few years after the House and Senate had moved into their new chambers, the old south wing became Statuary Hall; and the Supreme Court, which had been meeting in the basement, moved into the old north wing and remained there until the Supreme Court Building was completed, in 1935. In 1855 work crews had begun to construct the present cast- and wrought-iron dome to replace the wooden one in the interest of better architectural proportion with the House and Senate Chambers. Late in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, Thomas Crawford's bronze "Statue of Freedom" was moved into position on the top of the dome as a symbol of liberty and freedom. As this occurred a 35-gun salute from Capitol Hill was echoed by salutes from 12 fortifications surrounding the city. Thus ended many years of hard labor and ingenious engineering skill in erecting the monumental structure that is the seat of the legislative branch of the U.S. Government.

During the period 1959-61 a major renovation occurred. On the east side of the building, between the Senate and House Chambers, workmen constructed a new marble front, following the design of the old sandstone front, extending beyond the old walls. They also repaired and repainted the dome, built a subway terminal under the Senate wing, cleaned the walls of the wings, improved lighting throughout the building, and made other changes.

The Capitol, symbol of liberty to the free world. George Washington laid the cornerstone, in 1793. Courtesy, Office of the Architect of the Capitol.

Present Appearance. The Capitol rises majestically at the east end of the mall. Containing 540 rooms, it houses the Senate and House of Representatives and also contains a President's Room and an office for the Vice President. The present Senate Chamber has changed little over the years, but contains modern lighting and acoustics for the convenience of the Senators. The mahogany desks, arranged in a semicircular pattern, face the rostrum, where the Vice President presides. Of special interest are the desks once used by Daniel Webster and Jefferson Davis. The chamber is surrounded by visitor galleries, on the second-floor level. The House Chamber is similar to the Senate Chamber in that its walnut desks are arranged in a semicircle around the Speaker's rostrum, and the chamber is surrounded by second-floor visitor galleries. It is, however, a larger room and is used for joint sessions of Congress. A prized historical artifact is a silver mace, an 1841 replica of the one used in 1789 by the First Congress.

Statuary Hall, the old House Chamber, contains statues of leading citizens from the various States. In the central rotunda seven Presidents have lain in state—Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Harding, Taft, Hoover, and Kennedy—as well as such notables as the Unknown Soldiers of World War II and Korea, Adm. George Dewey, and Gen. John J. Pershing. Paintings adorn the walls of many rooms and corridors in the Capitol, and on the interior dome of the rotunda is the remarkable fresco "The Apotheosis of Washington," painted from scaffolds by Constantino Brumidi. On this canopy, which measures 4,664 square feet, Brumidi, in a prodigious feat of solitary workmanship, employed his remarkable artistic powers to scale heroic figures to appear life size from below. The frieze, circling the rotunda below the dome and picturing significant events in U.S. history, is partially the work of Brumidi, who, after 22 years of work on the rotunda, died in 1880. In 1953 Allyn Cox completed the frieze. Below it are large paintings by John Trumbull, a popular U.S. artist of the War for Independence period. In the ground floor below the rotunda is the empty crypt and tomb intended for George Washington, who chose to be buried at Mount Vernon.

Other sections of the Capitol consist mainly of private offices, committee rooms, and other facilities for the Congressmen. The Capitol is open daily to the public throughout the year. Guided tours begin in the rotunda and cover all public areas of interest.

NHL Designation: 12/19/60