Construction of the Massachusetts State House

Welcome to Did You Know a video series about Massachusetts where we take a look at interesting tidbits of state history. Each video will cover a different part of Massachusetts history and culture. Today, our topic is the construction of the Massachusetts State House. This is the Massachusetts state House today. Currently, the state house is the center of the state government of Massachusetts and is home to both the executive and legislative branches of its government.

It has been the home of both branches since it was first completed in 1798. But did you know the building looked very different when it was first built? Let's find out more before the current state house was built. The province of Massachusetts, as colonial government worked out of the old State House, which had been at seat since 1713.

After the Revolutionary War, the new Massachusetts state legislature continued to use the building while they debated how to build a new state house that would suit the new government. On February 16th, 1795, the Massachusetts General Court passed a resolution that gave Speaker of the House Edward Hutchinson Robins an architecture. Charles Bull Finch the authority to design and build the new Massachusetts State House.

Charles Finch, the principal architect of the Massachusetts State House, was a Boston local as considered the first great American architect. He later designed Maine and Connecticut State Houses, as well as the second United States Capitol Building in Washington, DC. The land on which the Massachusetts State House stands, Beacon Hill was purchased from the estate of Governor John Hancock after his death in 1793 and had only been used as a cow pasture for the Hancock family.

The construction of the new state house began with the dedication of its cornerstone on July 4th, 1795, and a lavish ceremony. The cornerstone was transported from the old statehouse just down the hill, symbolically conveying the continuance of government from the old to the new. It was pulled up the hill in a cart, drawn by 15 white horses, symbolizing the 15 states of the United States at the time.

The governor of Massachusetts, Samuel Adams, and the Grand Master Mason of Boston, Paul Revere, presided over the ceremony as they laid down the cornerstone. These two founders of Massachusetts left a time capsule inside it for future generations. This time capsule was unearthed first in 1853 during an expansion of the building, and then in 2014, as part of structural maintenance.

The new state house was completed in just under two and a half years of work in January of 1798. Today, you can see how large the original structure was by looking at the red brick facade that makes up the core of the building, which is in the same shape and style as it was when it was first built.

However, this original building was only 155 feet tall, 172 feet wide and 65 feet from the front to the back. Despite what we would consider its small size today, it was still able to hold the 400 members of the House of Representatives, the 40 members of the Senate and the executive offices. The Golden Dome of the Massachusetts State House is one of its most recognizable features.

Standing 35 feet tall at 53 feet in diameter. But it was not always gold when the statehouse was opened in 1798. The dome was made of wood shingles. However, New England weather began to take its toll on the structure, and it soon became apparent that a new and more permanent solution was needed to avoid water damage. In 1802, the dome of the Building was redone from its original wood frame and clad copper sheeting.

The shooting was provided by Paul Revere and son Revere's copper foundry and weighed nearly £8,000. Over the decades, the copper would rust and change from its natural dark red color to a light green were famously seen on the Statue of Liberty in 1874. The copper dome was gilded in 23 karat gold leaf, slim coating over the copper that is thinner than a sheet of paper.

The gold has been redone six times, most recently in 1997. The only time the gold has been obscured was during World War Two, when the gold was covered up by gray paint to reduce the possibility of an enemy attack. The bullfight fronts started as a red brick facade, but it was painted white in 1825 to protect the brick and make it resistant to water.

The first of many different paint jobs, the building would receive over the next 100 years. In 1831, the first addition to the state House was added, designed by Isaiah Rogers of Marshfield, Massachusetts. Rogers had a storied career designing buildings across the United States, notably completing the Ohio State House and becoming supervising architect of the United States. His edition consisted of four fireproof rooms designed to store the papers and records of the Commonwealth safely.

This extension was added under the rear of the Bull Finch building, extending its depth by only 25 feet. The next major addition to the state house was designed by Gridley J.F. Bryant and was built from 1853 to 1856. Bryant was the most prolific architect of his day and designed hundreds of buildings in the Boston area. The most famous of his works, which still stand today, are Boston's Old City Hall and the Charles Street Jail, now the Liberty Hotel.

The bright additions encapsulated Isaiah Rogers fireproof edifice and nearly doubled the size of the state house, providing accommodations for the State Library of Massachusetts, as well as the other departments of the Commonwealth. The gray base underneath the voltage front is the second part of the extension, and the only part that can be seen today extends into the ground.

It contains the first floor and the basement level. When this extension was being built, the cornerstone had to be removed and reset. And in doing so, the time capsule placed by Samuel Adams and Paul Revere was first rediscovered and opened. Governor Henry Gardiner, before receiving the time capsule, added his own contributions before reinserting it into the foundations for the next 160 years.

As the 1800s came to a close. It became more and more apparent that the state House needed to physically expand to accommodate the size and growing complexity of the Massachusetts state government in order to expand the size and improve the facilities of the state House. Two major additions to the building were built less than 20 years apart. The area immediately surrounding the state house was nearly all residential and was acquired by the Commonwealth for the expansion.

The Brigham addition, which is the largest addition to the state House, was named after its architect, Charles Brigham, from Watertown, Massachusetts, and an apprentice of Gridley. J.F. Bryant. Brigham's addition to the statehouse would demolish as Venter's work. The Brigham edition was attached to the rear of the bull, finished front, demolishing and replacing the greater part of the previous two additions.

Work began on the additions in 1889 and continued until its completion in 1895, creating a new section of the State House 397 feet long and 173 feet wide. The Brigham Additions exterior was constructed out of yellow brick and the bolted front was painted a similar color. To match this part of the building houses the offices of many of the major legislative committees, such as the Ways and Means Committee as well as the executive branch offices of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Secretary of the Treasury and the State Auditor.

The House of Representatives was moved into the section of the building from its original home in the Bull Forge front and its former chambers were remade and occupied by the Senate. The two wings of the statehouse were designed by the architectural firm of Chapman, Sturgis and Andrews, and they extend out either side of the original front. They are made out of Vermont marble and were built during World War One from 1914 to 1917.

The white marble of the wings prompted the repainting of the Bulford front to match it in 1917. Today, these wings provide space for the vast majority of individual offices in the building for members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The West Wing in particular houses the extended Executive suite and Governor's offices by the 1920s. Many historic buildings in Boston, including the statehouse, old Statehouse and Faneuil Hall, had their exteriors painted.

But a move towards historic restoration led to the removal of paint on several of these buildings of the city in order to expose the original brick. In 1928, workers sandblasted near 100 years of paint off the bulford front, leaving the exterior we see today. The last major addition to the state House is not one you can see from the outside.

In 1958, work began on a bombproof shelter for the records of Massachusetts under the West Wing of the building. This was done in reaction to the rising international tensions of the Cold War. However, as the war began to cool down, the records were moved to a more accessible location in 1986. Today, the records of the Commonwealth are stored in the state archives at Columbia Point, and the shelter has become the repository for the Special Collections Division of the Massachusetts State Library.

Today, the Massachusetts State House, with its grounds, occupies 6.7 acres of land and has interior square footage of 660,000 square feet with over 250 offices on an average day. Over a thousand people work in this building to run the state government. Throughout its history, the building has changed in its size, shape and appearance. It was built at three main stages and several minor ones growing larger and more detailed with every addition.

More than a decade of total construction time went to the building the state house over two centuries of use. It remains a symbol and a landmark that has been with us since the beginning of our Commonwealth, and it will continue to serve as a working out office for years to come. Thank you for joining us to learn about the history of the Massachusetts Statehouse.

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