State capitol building of the U.S. state of Tennessee
United States historic place
The
Tennessee State Capitol
, located in
Nashville, Tennessee
, is the
seat of government
for the
U.S. state
of
Tennessee
. It serves as the home of both houses of the
Tennessee General Assembly
?the
Tennessee House of Representatives
and the
Tennessee Senate
?and also contains the
governor
's office. Designed by architect
William Strickland
(1788?1854) of
Philadelphia
and Nashville, it was built between 1845 and 1859 and is one of Nashville's most prominent examples of
Greek Revival architecture
. The building, one of 12
state capitols
that does not have a dome, was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
in 1970 and named a
National Historic Landmark
in 1971. The tomb of
James K. Polk
, the 11th
president of the United States
, is on the capitol grounds.
Description
[
edit
]
The Tennessee State Capitol sits atop Capitol Hill, the highest point in Downtown Nashville. It is surrounded by a number of state government buildings, including the
Tennessee Supreme Court
building for the
Middle Tennessee
Grand Division
. Directly south of the capitol is Legislative Plaza, a public plaza located between a number of state office buildings. North of the capitol is
Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park
, a large public park that traces the state's history and geographic features.
The Tennessee State Capitol is modeled after an
Ionic
temple, incorporating
Greek Revival
architecture, and is composed of limestone quarried from nearby. It measures 112 by 239 ft (34 by 73 m), and is approximately 206.6 ft (63.0 m) tall. The north and south porticoes each contain eight Ionic columns, and the east and west porticoes, which do not span the entire length of the structure, contain six. All of the columns are capped by
entablatures
. On top of the roof is a 42 ft (13 m) tall round tower, modeled after the
Choragic Monument of Lysicrates
, that sits on a square
pedestal
-like structure. The tower contains eight
Cornithian
columns. The tower is topped by a 37 ft (11 m) tall
cupola
and
finial
, which in turn is topped by a flag pole.
[1]
The building contains three stories. The first floor contains the office of the Governor and other state officials, including cabinet members. The House and Senate chambers are found on the second floor, as well as a room which housed the
Tennessee State Library and Archives
until 1953.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
Background and planning
[
edit
]
When Tennessee was admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796, as the 16th state,
Knoxville
was its first capital. Over the next thirty years, the seat of government alternated between Kingston, Nashville, Knoxville, and Murfreesboro, before being moved to Nashville in 1826. The
1835 state constitution
mandated that the General Assembly choose a permanent capital. In 1843, Nashville was chosen as the capital.
[3]
On October 7, 1843, the Tennessee General Assembly declared Nashville as the state's permanent capital, and planning for a statehouse began shortly thereafter. The prominent hill on which the capitol would be constructed became known initially as Cedar Knob, and later Campbell's Hill after Judge G. W. Campbell, who owned it at the time.
It was previously occupied by the Holy Rosary Cathedral, a
cathedral
which was the first
Roman Catholic
church in Nashville.
[5]
[6]
[7]
The property had been purchased by the city of Nashville for $30,000, and was conveyed to the state government for $1.
[8]
Design and construction
[
edit
]
Tennessee State Capitol during the Civil War. Photo by
George N. Barnard
.
The State Capitol was designed by renowned
Philadelphia
architect
William Strickland
, who modeled it after a Greek
Ionic
temple. The prominent lantern structure located above the roof line of the Tennessee state capitol is a design based upon the
Choragic Monument of Lysicrates
in
Athens
that honors the Greek god
Dionysus
doing battle with
Tyrrhenian
pirates.
[9]
The cornerstone of the Tennessee state capitol was itself laid on July 4, 1845 and the building was completed fourteen years later in 1859.
[10]
Its final cost was approximately $900,000 (equivalent to $30,520,000 in 2023).
[11]
View from the capitol ca. 1865
The
American Society of Civil Engineers
has designated the building as a
National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark
in recognition of its innovative construction, which made unusually extensive use of stone and was an early example of the use of structural iron. Both the interior and exterior are built with
limestone
from a
quarry
about 1-mile (1.6 km) from the site. Some interior columns were built from single pieces of stone, requiring massive wooden
derricks
to hoist them into place.
Wrought iron
, instead of wood, was used for the roof
trusses
to reduce the building's vulnerability to fire.
[12]
Tennessee State Capitol depicted on an 1864 Confederate
$20 banknote
Commercial,
convict
, and
slave labor
were used in the project. Fifteen enslaved Black men worked on carving the Capitol's limestone cellar from 1845 to 1847; Nashville stonemason A.G. Payne was paid $18 a month for their labor. It is believed to be "the most significant project where the [Tennessee] state government rented slave labor".
[13]
Strickland died five years before the building's completion and was entombed in its northeast wall. His son, F. W. Strickland, supervised completion of the structure. William Strickland also designed the St. Mary's Cathedral (located along the base of the capitol hill), as well as Downtown Presbyterian church located just a few blocks away from the state capitol.
[6]
Tennessee State Capitol
Samuel Dold Morgan
(1798?1880), chairman of the State Building Commission overseeing the construction of the Tennessee State Capitol, is entombed in the southeast corner near the south entrance.
Monuments
[
edit
]
Monuments on the Capitol grounds include statues of two of the three Tennessee residents who served as
President of the United States
:
Andrew Jackson
is represented by
Andrew Jackson
by
Clark Mills
, and
Andrew Johnson
by a statue by sculptor Jim Gray. The second President from Tennessee,
James K. Polk
, is buried in a tomb on the grounds, together with his wife,
Sarah Childress Polk
.
[14]
[15]
Other monuments on the grounds include the
Sgt. Alvin C. York
Memorial by
Felix de Weldon
, the Tennessee Holocaust Commission Memorial, the
Sam Davis
Memorial at the southwest corner of the Capitol grounds, and the Memorial to Africans during the
Middle Passage
at the southwest corner of Capitol grounds. The Charles Warterfield
Reliquary
is a group of broken limestone
columns
and fragments removed and saved from the State Capitol during the mid-1950s restoration, located near the northern belvedere on Capitol Drive. In 1957, the Capitol building was struck by an F2 tornado.
On May 30, 2020, the
Sen. Edward Ward Carmack
Memorial located above the Motlow Tunnel near the south entrance was toppled by
protestors during a demonstration in response
to the police
murder of George Floyd
.
[16]
During the Nashville Autonomous Zone the area near where the statue stood has been unofficially claimed by protesters as "Ida B. Wells Plaza", after the anti-lynching advocate whose death had been advocated by Carmack.
The building housed a
bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest
between 1978 and 2021. This bust resulted from legislation introduced by Democratic state senator and
Sons of Confederate Veterans
member
Douglas Henry
in 1973, and its presence was controversial since its dedication.
[17]
Legislation was proposed in 2017 towards moving it to the
Tennessee State Museum
.
[18]
The
Tennessee Historical Commission
voted 25-1 on March 9, 2021, to move the bust to a museum as soon as possible.
[19]
The bust was removed on July 23, 2021, and was relocated to the
Tennessee State Museum
three days later.
[20]
-
Night time view of the Capitol
-
Andrew Jackson Statue
located on the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol
-
Tomb of
James K. Polk
located on the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol
-
Senate chamber in 2022
-
House chamber in 2022
-
Old Supreme Court Chamber in 2022
-
Library in 2022
-
Second floor corridor in 2022
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
Citations
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
"National Register Information System"
.
National Register of Historic Places
.
National Park Service
. March 13, 2009.
- ^
"Tennessee State Capitol"
.
National Historic Landmark summary listing
. National Park Service. Archived from
the original
on May 9, 2009
. Retrieved
September 3,
2009
.
- ^
Langsdon, Phillip R. (2000).
Tennessee: A Political History
. Franklin, Tennessee: Hillboro Press. p. 104.
ISBN
9781577361251
– via Internet Archive.
- ^
"FIRST - Catholic Church in Tennessee - Nashville, Tennessee - First of its Kind on Waymarking.com"
.
Waymarking.com
. Retrieved
August 18,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
"Capitols and churches: Built and buried in Nashville ? Tennessee Star Journal"
.
Tnsjournal.com
. December 22, 2015
. Retrieved
August 18,
2017
.
- ^
"CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Nashville"
.
Newadvent.org
. Retrieved
August 18,
2017
.
- ^
McGee, Nikki (May 8, 2021).
"Little-known facts about the Tennessee State Capitol"
.
WKRN-TV
. Nashville
. Retrieved
January 1,
2022
.
- ^
"Choragic Monument of Lysicrates"
.
famouswonders.com
. June 12, 2013
. Retrieved
August 18,
2017
.
- ^
The Tennessee State Capitol: A Self-Guided Walking Tour
. Tennessee State Museum. 2009.
- ^
Kerr, Gail (June 27, 1994).
"Laying out a new era; Mall heralds revitalized city"
.
The Tennessean
. Nashville. pp. 1A,
2A
. Retrieved
January 1,
2022
– via Newspapers.com.
- ^
"Tennessee State Capitol"
.
American Society of Civil Engineers
. Retrieved
January 29,
2022
.
- ^
Iv, Thomas Joseph Broderick (June 3, 2008).
"They Moved the Earth: The Slaves Who Built the Tennessee State Capitol"
.
Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal
.
4
.
ISSN
1555-788X
. Retrieved
February 23,
2015
.
- ^
Burke, Sheila (March 24, 2017).
"Plan to dig up President Polk's body ? again ? stirs trouble"
. Yahoo. Associated Press
. Retrieved
March 26,
2017
.
- ^
Resolution to move former President James K. Polk's body approved - CBS News
- ^
"Toppled statue just some of damage at Tennessee capitol after Floyd protests"
. June 2020.
- ^
Ebert, Joel (August 18, 2017).
"Nathan Bedford Forrest bust at the Tennessee Capitol: What you need to know"
.
The Tennessean
. Retrieved
September 5,
2017
.
- ^
Natalie Allison; Dave Boucher (December 15, 2017).
"Bill filed to relocate Nathan Bedford Forrest bust from state capitol to Tennessee State Museum"
.
The Tennessean
.
- ^
Falconer, Rebecca (March 9, 2021).
"Tennessee to remove monument of KKK leader from state Capitol"
.
news.yahoo.com
. Axios. Archived from
the original
on March 10, 2021
. Retrieved
March 10,
2021
.
- ^
Allison, Natalie (July 23, 2021).
"The bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest is out of the Tennessee Capitol. Here's how it happened"
.
Tennessean
. Retrieved
July 23,
2021
.
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
Nickname(s):
Music City
,
Athens of the South
|
About
| |
---|
Neighboring
cities
| |
---|
Neighborhoods
| |
---|
Culture and
landmarks
| Sports venues
| |
---|
Former landmarks
| |
---|
|
---|
Education
| Colleges &
universities
| |
---|
Primary &
secondary schools
| |
---|
|
---|
Sports
| |
---|
Transportation
| |
---|
|