Stop 10. House Chamber. This is the room where the Massachusetts House of Representatives has met since 1895. The Speaker of the House is the leader of this body and is elected by their fellow representatives and presides from the elevated chair behind the podium. Representatives can vote electronically by pushing a green, yellow or red nay button on their desks.

The results of the vote appear next to each representative's name on the boards at the front of the room. Representatives are elected to a two year term and represent around 45,000 citizens each. Behind the Speaker's podium are the Albert Herder murals called Milestones on the Road to Freedom. They depict the events that led up to Massachusetts becoming an independent state.

The names on the ceiling commemorate men who made important contributions to the Commonwealth and the nation prior to 1895. The room is paneled in Honduran mahogany wood. Above you are the galleries for the public guests of the speaker and the press. Hanging over the public gallery is the famous sacred cod, which symbolizes the importance of the fishing industry to the early Massachusetts economy.

It was given to the House in 1784 by a Boston merchant named John Roe on April 26, 1933. The sacred cod was stolen, or cod napped from the House of Representatives by members of the Harvard Lampoon, but it was anonymously returned a few days later. To learn more about our legislative process, please scan the QR code for Stop nine.