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32-825: The Massachusetts State House , also known as the Massachusetts Statehouse or the New State House , is the state capitol and seat of government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts , located in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston . The building houses the Massachusetts General Court ( state legislature ) and the offices of the Governor of Massachusetts . The building, designed by architect Charles Bulfinch ,

64-587: A cost of $ 36,000. Then, in July 1997, the dome was once again re-gilded, in 23k gold. The estimated cost this time was $ 1.5 million. The dome is topped with a gilded, wooden pine cone, symbolizing both the importance of Boston's lumber industry during early colonial times and of the state of Maine, which was a district of the Commonwealth when the Bulfinch section of the building was completed. In front of

96-767: A museum and both the legislature and the governor's office are in nearby buildings. Only Arizona does not have its governor's office in the state capitol, though in Delaware , Ohio , Michigan , Vermont , and Virginia , the offices there are for ceremonial use only. In nine states, the state's highest court also routinely meets in the capitol: Indiana , Kentucky , Nebraska , North Dakota , Oklahoma (both civil and criminal courts), Pennsylvania (one of three sites), South Dakota , West Virginia , and Wisconsin . The other 40 states have separate buildings for their supreme courts, though in Michigan , Minnesota , and Utah

128-727: Is maintained under the auspices of the Superintendent of the Bureau of the State House. [1] . The building is situated on 6.7 acres (2.7 ha) of land on top of Beacon Hill in Boston , opposite the Boston Common on Beacon Street . It was built on land once owned by John Hancock , Massachusetts's first elected governor. The Masonic cornerstone ceremony took place on July 4, 1795, with Paul Revere , then Grand Master of

160-714: The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts , presiding. Before the current State House was completed in 1798, Massachusetts's government house was the Old State House on what is now Washington Street. For the building's design, architect Charles Bulfinch made use of two existing buildings in London : William Chambers 's Somerset House , and James Wyatt 's Pantheon . After Maine separated from Massachusetts and became an independent state in 1820, Charles Bulfinch designed Maine's capitol building with architectural influence of

192-618: The National Register of Historic Places , marked with NRHP . Nineteen of those are further designated as National Historic Landmarks , marked with NHL . Download coordinates as: 1960 (State House; the Legislature moved into the building in 1985) Originally called the District Building until renamed in 1994 after district councilor John A. Wilson District of Maine Originally settled in 1607 by

224-595: The Plymouth Company , the coastal area between the Merrimack and Kennebec rivers, as well as an irregular parcel of land between the headwaters of the two rivers, became the province of Maine in a 1622 land grant . In 1629, the land was split, creating an area between the Piscataqua and Merrimack rivers which became the province of New Hampshire . It existed through a series of land patents made by

256-550: The Bulfinch building leads from Beacon Street to Doric Hall inside the building. The large main doors inside Doric Hall are only opened on three occasions: Memorial Hall, also known as the Hall of Flags, is a room that sits central to the state house's second floor. The room displays regiment flags of returning Massachusetts soldiers from various regiments across every war since the Civil War . The stained glass skylight above contains

288-683: The District of Maine from the rest of the Commonwealth. The following month, on July 19, voters in the district approved statehood by 17,091 to 7,132. The results of the election were presented to the Massachusetts Governor's Council on August 24, 1819. The Maine Constitution was unanimously approved by the 210 delegates to the Maine Constitutional Convention in October 1819. On February 25, 1820,

320-640: The District of Maine to manage its northernmost counties, bounded on the west by the Piscataqua River and on the east by the Saint Croix River. By 1820, the District had been further subdivided with the creation of Hancock , Kennebec , Oxford , Penobscot , Somerset , and Washington counties. A movement for Maine statehood began as early as 1785, and in the following years, several conventions were held to effect this. Starting in 1792, five popular votes were taken but all failed to reach

352-589: The General Court passed a follow-up measure officially accepting the fact of Maine's imminent statehood. At the time of Maine’s request for statehood, there were an equal number of free and slave states . Pro- slavery members of the United States Congress saw the admission of another free state, Maine, as a threat to the balance between slave and free states. They would support statehood for Maine only if Missouri Territory , where slavery

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384-637: The Governor's offices (on the west end) with the Massachusetts Senate occupying the former House of Representatives Chamber under the dome. The Massachusetts House of Representatives occupies a chamber on the west side of the Brigham addition. Hanging over this chamber is the " Sacred Cod ", which was given to the House of Representatives in 1784 by a Boston merchant. The Sacred Cod symbolizes

416-537: The House and Senate clerks, House and Senate counsel, and Legislative Information Services. One corridor of the building's fourth floor is a sort of Newspaper Row , anchored by the large Press Gallery suite where reporters from a range of publications maintain desks. The central Press Gallery room was given to use of reporters by the Legislature in 1909. The Massachusetts State House Press Association, established in 1909, governs these shared workspaces. Some individual news outlets have separate offices. A suite of rooms on

448-467: The Legislature has, since 1985, met in the State House . A capitol typically contains the meeting place for its state's legislature and offices for the state's governor , though this is not true for every state. The legislatures of Alabama , Nevada , and North Carolina meet in other nearby buildings, but their governor's offices remain in the capitol. The Arizona State Capitol is now strictly

480-549: The Massachusetts Capitol building with a simplified Greek Revival influence. The Commonwealth completed a major expansion of the original building in 1895. The architect for the annex was Bostonian Charles Brigham . In 1917, the east and west wings, designed by architects Sturgis , Bryant , Chapman & Andrews, were completed. In July 2016, Governor Charlie Baker proposed to the state legislature to sell 300 square feet (28 m) of permanent easement on

512-471: The United States , exercise its authority . While most states (39 of the 50) use the term "capitol" for their state's seat of government , Indiana and Ohio use the term "Statehouse" and eight states use "State House": Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Vermont. Delaware has a "Legislative Hall". The State of Alabama has a State Capitol , but

544-702: The Universe", stems from a remark by Oliver Wendell Holmes from his 1858 book The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table in which he mentions the State House: "A jaunty-looking person ... said there was one more wise man's saying that he had heard; it was about our place—but he didn't know who said it. ... Boston State-House is the Hub of the Solar System. You couldn't pry that out of a Boston man if you had

576-504: The building is an equestrian statue of General Joseph Hooker . Other statues in front of the building include Daniel Webster , educator Horace Mann , and former US President John F. Kennedy . The statues of Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer are located on the lawns below the east and west wings. Inside the building is a statue of William Francis Bartlett , an officer in the Civil War. The original red-brick Bulfinch building contains

608-581: The commonwealth's constitutional officers with exception of the Attorney General, who is based at the nearby McCormack Building . The majority of State House office space is given over to the Legislature. Every member of the House and Senate is assigned an office. Large third-floor suites are assigned to the House Speaker (Room 356) and Senate President (Room 332). Other offices include

640-571: The county led to its division in 1760 through the creation of Cumberland and Lincoln counties. The northeastern portion of present-day Maine was first sparsely occupied by Maliseet Indians and French settlers from Acadia . The lands between the Kennebec and Saint Croix rivers were granted to the Duke of York in 1664, who had them administered as Cornwall County , part of his proprietary Province of New York . In 1688, these lands (along with

672-752: The fifth floor is home to the Massachusetts headquarters of several veterans' groups, including the American Legion , American Legion Auxiliary , AMVETS , Disabled American Veterans , Italian American War Veterans of the United States , Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America , Korean War Veterans, Marine Corps League , Military Order of the Purple Heart , Persian Gulf Era Veterans, Polish Legion of American Veterans , Veterans of Foreign Wars , and Vietnam Veterans of America . One of Boston's most enduring nicknames , "The Hub of

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704-430: The high court also has ceremonial meetings at the capitol. Most U.S. capitol buildings are in the neoclassical style with a central dome , which are based on the U.S. Capitol , and are often in a park-like setting. Eleven of the fifty state capitols do not feature a dome: Alaska, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, and Virginia. Forty-four capitols are listed on

736-631: The importance of the fishing industry to the early Massachusetts economy. The House Chamber is decorated with murals by Albert Herter , father of Massachusetts Gov. Christian Herter . Murals on the second floor under the dome were painted by artist Edward Brodney . Brodney won a competition to paint the first mural in a contest sponsored by the Works Progress Administration in 1936. It is entitled "Columbia Knighting Her World War Disabled". Brodney could not afford to pay models, and friends and family posed. The model for Columbia

768-650: The kings of England during this era, and included New Somersetshire, Lygonia , and Falmouth . The province was incorporated into the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the 1650s, beginning with the formation of York County, Massachusetts , which extended from the Piscataqua River to just east of the mouth of the Presumpscot River in Casco Bay . Eventually, its territory grew to encompass nearly all of present-day Maine. The large size of

800-742: The necessary majorities. During the War of 1812 , British and Canadian forces occupied a large portion of Maine including everything from the Penobscot River east to the New Brunswick border with the goal of annexing them to Canada as the Colony of New Ireland . A weak response by Massachusetts to this occupation and possible British annexation contributed to increased calls in the district for statehood. The Massachusetts General Court passed enabling legislation on June 19, 1819, separating

832-649: The rest of New York) were subsumed into the Dominion of New England . English and French claims in western Maine would be contested, at times violently, until the British conquest of New France in the French and Indian War . With the creation of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in 1692, the entirety of what is now Maine became part of that province. When Massachusetts adopted its state constitution in 1780, it created

864-419: The seals of the original Thirteen Colonies of the United States, with the Massachusetts seal in the center. The Samuel Adams and Paul Revere time capsule is a metal box located in a cornerstone of the State House, placed there in the late 18th century and rediscovered in 2014. The contents include coins, newspaper clippings, and other historical artifacts. The State House contains the primary offices of all

896-461: The tire of all creation straightened out for a crow-bar". Notes Sources List of state capitols in the United States ( Alabama to Missouri , Montana to Wyoming ) This is a list of state and territorial capitols in the United States , the building or complex of buildings from which the government of each U.S. state , the District of Columbia , and the organized territories of

928-435: The west side of the State House lawn to a neighboring condominium. The land in question was once pasture owned by John Hancock and the easement would allow for the addition of au pair units. Through legislation passed by the legislature the land surrounding the state house is considered "open space". [2] The original wood dome, which leaked, was covered with copper in 1802 by Paul Revere 's Revere Copper Company . Revere

960-476: Was Brodney's sister Norma Brodney Cohen, and the model for the soldier on one knee in the foreground was his brother Fred Brodney. In 1938, he painted a second mural under the dome called "World War Mothers". The models were again primarily friends and family members, with sister Norma sitting beside their mother Sarah Brodney. The New York Times notes that the murals are relatively rare examples of military art with women as their subjects. A staircase in front of

992-460: Was completed in January 1798 at a cost of $ 133,333 (more than five times the budget), and has repeatedly been enlarged since. It is one of the oldest state capitols in current use. It is considered a masterpiece of Federal architecture and among Bulfinch's finest works, and was designated a National Historic Landmark for its architectural significance. Today the building officially functions and

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1024-416: Was the first American to roll copper successfully into sheets (for copper sheathing ) in a commercially viable manner. The dome was first painted gray and then light yellow before being gilded with gold leaf in 1874. During World War II , the dome was painted gray once again, to prevent reflection during blackouts and to protect the city and building from bombing attacks. The dome was re-gilded in 1969, at

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