Guided Video Tour of the State House

Welcome to the Massachusetts State House. This building has served as the seat of our state government. In 1798, two of the three branches of state government are housed in this building The House of Representatives and the state Senate, as well as the governor's office, are all located here under the Golden Dome. The red brick front section of the Statehouse, as shown in this model, is the oldest section of the building.

It is referred to as the Bolton Front, since it was designed by noted American born architect Charles Olsen's design. Many other buildings in Boston, as well as other early New England state houses such as in Connecticut, meet the cornerstone for the new state House was laid on July 4th, 1795. Governor Samuel Adams and Grand Master of the Masons Paul Revere, attended the Cornerstone ceremony.

The cornerstone was brought up to the top of Beacon Hill by 15 white horses to represent the 15 states in the Union at that time. The Statehouse was finally completed three years later and opened for the new legislative session on January 11, 1798. One major difference about how the building worked in 1798 compared to what you see today was that the iconic gold dome was not yet golden.

It was originally covered in wooden shingles, painted gray. By 1802, the shingles on the roof linked and Paul Revere and sons provided copper sheeting to cover the dome and waterproofed it. By 1874, it was finally gilded and 23 karat gold leaf for the first time. If you look above the dome at the top of the cupola, you will see a golden pinecone.

This is a symbol of the importance of our early lumber industry and a time when Maine was still part of Massachusetts. Most of the wood used to build the state house, including all the columns, both inside and out, came from what is now known as the state of Maine, which separated from Massachusetts in 1820. This is just the beginning of the interesting information you will learn on the tour of our beautiful statehouse.

We have many dedicated and knowledgeable guides waiting to give you more details. We have volunteers, interns and staff who will each share some tidbits of history with you as we continue this virtual video tour of the Massachusetts State House. We hope you will return in person soon to continue exploring the Massachusetts State Capitol. The front doors of the original Paul Finch building was the main entrance of the statehouse up until 1895, when the Brigham edition was added.

These doors now serve only for ceremonial occasions, such as when the governor finishes their term in office, when the sitting U.S. president or foreign head of state comes to visit the statehouse, or when Massachusetts regimental flags are marched into the building to be put on display after a war. Behind these doors, historical, the historic meeting and reception room of the State House.

The room we are now entering historic hall, which gets its name from the Doric style columns that line it. This hall was the site of countless ceremonies, conferences, meetings, banquets, public addresses and other special events. However, since 1895, it is primarily been used to welcome tourists and other visitors to the Statehouse. It also serves as a museum building, housing, various works of art.

The first piece of artwork on display in Doric was located over to our right. It's a portrait of Abraham Lincoln. This portrait of Lincoln is very rare and there's only about four of its kind in the world. This is because it shows Lincoln standing up at his full height as Lincoln was six foot four when the average man was only about five foot seven.

Lincoln shied away from flaunting tying an attempt to portray himself as being humble. The likeness of this portrait was probably based on photographs by Civil War photographer Matthew Brady, whose picture of Lincoln was also used on the old $5 bill. Therefore, it has become known as the $5 portrait. Over in the center. Back at the war call is a statue of our first president, George Washington.

This was installed in 1827, which makes it the first statue to be erected in Doric Hall and the oldest statue in the entire statehouse. Over to the left of Washington lies another statue of a man who may not be as well known, but is arguably just as important to not just Massachusetts history, but American history as well. This man is former Massachusetts Governor John Aislabie and Andrew, who was governor of Massachusetts during the American Civil War.

Andrew is known to be a staunch abolitionist and was responsible for orchestrating the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, which was the first all African-American regiment to serve in the United States military. A final piece of artwork we will see in Dora called is the bronze Bust of John Hancock. Many people know John Hancock for being a key figure in the American Revolution as he was a member of the Continental Congress and the first to sign the Declaration of Independence.

However, Hancock was very important to Massachusetts as well, being the richest man in Boston and the owner of Beacon Hill, the site where the state house would eventually be constructed. He became the first democratically elected governor of Massachusetts in 1780 under the newly ratified constitution and served 11 one year terms. This makes him the most elected governor, but not the longest serving governor in Massachusetts.

That honor would go to Michael Dukakis, who served three four year terms from 1983 to 1991. We have now left the 1789 both in front and have entered the recommendation added to the state house in 1895. This small hall contains a statue of William Francis Bartlett, a soldier in the Civil War. He left Harvard College to join the Union Army at the start of the war and during the siege of Yorktown, Virginia.

He was shot in the leg and it became infected, requiring that leg to be amputated or would return to Harvard to recover and finish his degree, then returned to the Army with a wooden leg to continue fighting. But he would not wear his wooden leg on horseback. He would have his men strap him to his horse so he wouldn't fall off during the battle of the equator in 1864.

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Bartlett's fake leg was shot off while he fought on foot since he was unable to retreat. Bartlett was captured and put in a Confederate prison. He was later returned in a prisoner exchange. And after the war, both the Democratic and Republican state parties asked Bartlett to run for governor. But Bartlett refused to run because he wanted to be remembered as a soldier instead of a politician.

Above us is a stained glass window that has names of some of the first democracies and republics in the world. There are two seals here. The left seal is of the pilgrims who left England to seek religious freedom and the white seals of the Massachusetts Bay Colony established in 1630. This room is Nurse's Hall, which is named for the statue of a nurse tending a wounded soldier during the civil War.

The statue is meant to honor all nurses who served, including Clara Barton, who founded the American Red Cross. It was sculpted in 1914 by Bella Platt as the first statue honoring women who served in the war. Above this hall made of pop and also marble are three murals of state history painted by Robert Reed. The mill mural shows lawyer James Otis arguing against the width of assistance in 1761.

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The weeks of assistance for the British law that let soldiers search houses without a warrant or warning if the owner was suspected of smuggling illegal goods. Otis argued that this law was unfair and violated the rights of the British citizens of Boston. Otis did not win this case, but one of the lawyers in attendance there was a young John Adams.

Adams would go on to write the Massachusetts State Constitution, which forbid searches without a warrant. Part of that constitution, Article 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights would eventually influence the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution that outlawed unreasonable citizen searches. Adams admired Otis, saying that then and there, the child independence was born. The left mural shows Paul Revere's midnight ride on April 18th, 290 1775.

On the right is the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when colonists protested the British tax on tea by disguising themselves as Native Americans and three ships containing tea from England breaking open over 300 crates of tea and throwing them into Boston Harbor. This room is Memorial Hall, also known as the Hall of Flats, and it is where we honor Massachusetts soldiers and veterans from all wars.

This hall is where the state collects the flags brought to the state house by Massachusetts state regiments. At the end of what flags have been returned after every major military conflict, including the Spanish-American War. World War One, World War two, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. These flags used to be here in this room for many years, but became very fragile over time.

The flags were moved in 1987 to 2 conservation facilities that preserved the flags and climate controlled salts. Around the room are pictures of some of the flats. This one is the flag of the 54th Regiment used during the Civil War, which is similar to the Massachusetts state flag. The 54th Regiment was the first African-American regiment in the country founded by Governor John Andrew in 1863.

This flag is of the 21st Massachusetts volunteer Infantry, and it has a blood stain on it, making it one of several battle damaged flags in the collection. The men carrying this flag, Sergeant Thomas Plunkett, lost his arms to a cannonball during the Civil War, costing the state. There are a few flags in the center of the room, including the Gold Star flag, which honors Gold Star veterans who were killed in active duty.

There is also the Massachusetts State flag and a black flag that honors prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action. There are four murals around this school. This mural shows Henry Walker's interpretation of Puritan missionary John Eliot preaching to Native Americans in what is now Natick. This one, by Edward Simmons shows the Battle of Concord on the North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, on April 19th, 1775.

This mural by Henry Walker shows the Pilgrim sighting land in Plymouth in 1620. This mural by Edward Simmons is called The Return of the Colonies. It shows Governor John Andrew welcoming back the Massachusetts 54th Regiment to the statehouse on December 22nd, 1865. Above Memorial Hall is the stained glass window with the 13 seals of the 13 original states, including the Massachusetts seal in the center.

This room is not below the golden dome since that is located above the Senate chamber. This room is the Great Hall of Flags, which serves as the formal event space of the Statehouse. The room used to be an open concrete space with no roof meant to keep the building cool before it had air conditioning. In 1990, the space was enclosed from the basement and topped with a glass ceiling to become a room to hold events which range from a polling place for elections to large legislative affairs.

When the room was first enclosed, it was very echoey. So the governor asked all the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts to send their city or town flags to the statehouse to line this room. The flag served to reduce the echo and decorate the room on the bottom left as the flag of Plymouth established in 1620 as the oldest town in Massachusetts.

The Great Hall is missing a few flags because not every city in town has one. But the goal is to eventually have all 351 flags in this room above the flags is a clock designed by artist R.M. Fisher. That is a functional piece of art. Fisher was inspired by the clocks in meeting halls and churches in New England and created a clock based on them while echoing the circular arches of the statehouse.

On top of the clock is a pine cone, similar to one on the top of the golden dome beneath the Great Hall for legislative hearings that serve as spaces for legislators and public advocates to discuss and debate bills and legislation. Welcome to the Hall of Valor. In the center of the wall is a statue of Roger Wolcott, which was added in 1906.

Walcott was governor of Massachusetts from 1897 to 1900 and was instrumental in getting the state involved in the Spanish-American War. He also was important in helping to keep the statehouse in Boston. In the late 1800s. The building was becoming cramped and the government was deciding whether to move the capital to a more central city or add an addition to the current building.

Walcott, who was a member of the House of Representatives at the time, helped lead the fight for keeping the Capitol building in Boston. The statue was sculpted by Daniel Chester French, who is famous for his statue of Abraham Lincoln inside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.. Walcott was one of the first statues that French based Lincoln offered, especially since both are seated in a chair.

French was already well known in Massachusetts for his Minuteman statue in Concord, which was installed in 1874. The murals on either side depict Massachusetts regiments going off to fight with valor. The mural on the left is titled Marching Through Baltimore and depicts the six Massachusetts Regiment heading to Washington, D.C., at the start of the American Civil War. The regiment was attacked by a mob of southern sympathizers, and four soldiers were killed.

The first casualties suffered by the union. The mural on the right is titled Landing in Puerto Rico, which shows soldiers disembarking in one to Puerto Rico at the start of the Spanish-American War in 1898. Massachusetts was one of the first states to send soldiers to the war. These murals were painted by Richard Andrew in 1931. The Massachusetts legislature or general court was established in 1644.

It has two branches a 40 member Senate and a 160 member House of Representatives is in this room. The larger of these two legislative bodies conduct their business. State representatives are elected for two year terms of office. This chamber has been used by the House of Representatives since 1895, and many parts of this chamber, including the desk and the speaker's platform, are original to the chamber.

The Speaker of the House is elected by the Representatives and presides from the elevated chair behind the podium. Each of the representatives can vote electronically by pressing a green or red nay button on their desks. Each state representative represents around 43,000 people, and this number will increase or decrease depending on the population of Massachusetts. The results of the vote appear next to each representative's name on the boards in the front of the room.

Bills receive a public hearing and a committee recommendation. They must be read, debated and passed with a majority vote in both the House and Senate before they are sent to the governor to be signed the law or veto. The chamber is paneled in Honduran mahogany. Behind the speaker's platform are the Albert Herder murals named Milestones on the Road to Freedom.

They depict important moments in Massachusetts history, starting with John Winthrop, arriving with the official charter to read the colony of Massachusetts to the ouster of the tyrannical governor, Edmund Andrews, to the aftermath of the Salem Witch trials, to John Hancock working for the inclusion of the Bill of Rights at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and to John Adams, Sam Adams and James Bodin drafting the constitution of Massachusetts, which we still use today.

This remarkable document was adopted in 1780 and included a groundbreaking Declaration of Rights serving as a model for the Constitution of the United States. It is the oldest written constitution still in effect in the world today, although it has been amended more than 100 times. Above us are the galleries for the public, the press and the guests and the Speaker of the House.

The names on the ceiling commemorate people from Massachusetts who made important contributions to the Commonwealth and to the country. Prior to the chambers construction in 1895, hanging over the public gallery is the famous sacred court symbolizing the importance of the fishing industry in the early Massachusetts economy. It was given to the House of Representatives in 1784 by a Boston merchant and former Representative Jonathan Roe.

On April 26, 1933, the sacred cod was kidnaped from the house by members of the Harvard Lampoon newspaper. Thankfully, it was returned a few days later. This suite of offices is where the leadership team of the executive branch of government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts meets. This is where the governor's office, lieutenant governor's office and the governor's council chamber are located.

The governor's office is a working office and not normally available to tour groups. This room is the executive waiting room around us. You can see portraits of the most recent governors of Massachusetts. Most recent governors are Deval Patrick and Mitt Romney. Each outgoing governor chooses which artists will paint his or her portrait, and it is installed after they leave office.

Massachusetts Chief Executive Officer The governor is assisted by a cabinet and a governor's council. Each cabinet secretary is appointed by the governor and responsible for the implementation of policy in the departments under their jurisdiction. The eight members of the Governor's Council approve gubernatorial judicial appointments and pardons, as well as expenditures from the Treasury. This is the Governor's ceremonial office.

It was restored to its original design and coloring in 2014. In the center is an antique chandelier, originally placed in this chamber over a century ago as a gasoline running on gas. But it has since been converted from gas to electricity above the Connemara marble fireplace is a portrait of former governor evil. Each governor picks a portrait of one of their predecessors to hang in the office.

Welcome to the Senate Reception Room, which was the original Senate chamber and is part of the portrait in front. The Senate to use this room from 1798 to the completion of the recommendation. Today, the room is used for private meetings between senators or for small events. The four columns in the center are the only original wooden ones in the building from 1798 carved out of main white pine trees.

The arches on the back wall were originally windows, but were moved, including when the addition was added. The chairs around the room are original Senate chairs that were found in the attic and rear poster. The table in the center is cleaned at 13 slices, each representing one of the original 13 states. This places are all different sizes to represent the varying areas of the state.

The portraits around the walls over our previous Senate presidents. The portraits include Horace Mann, founder of the public education system. Teresa murray, who was the first female Senate president, and Calvin Coolidge, who had already served as mayor and state representative and then tenant governor and governor of Massachusetts before becoming vice president and president United States. Welcome to the Senate Chamber.

The Senate chamber was recently renovated from 2018 to 2019 to repair damage and update the room. The chamber now looks similar to its late 1800s appearance. This was the original chamber for the House of Representatives and went through different alterations throughout the years to accommodate the varying number of representatives. At one point there are almost 700 members. Maine was still part of Massachusetts and the seating was done in tears.

The house vacated in 1895 and after renovations by 1890, the Senate had moved in. There are 40 senators in Massachusetts led by the Senate President who was elected by all of the members. The Senate presidents chair is at the north side of the room. The remaining senators sit in a circular fashion facing the president. The clerk's desk is in the center.

Each center is elected to two year terms and represents about 175,000 people each. The Senate has to meet every 72 hours for the state constitution, but usually they will meet multiple times a week. In the Senate, voting is done by voice, with each senator being able to answer yea or nay to get a bill passed in their state and must go through three readings of both chambers.

But one can be sent to the governor's office. The governor then has the option to sign or veto the bill. A veto can be overturned by two thirds majority in both chambers. On their desks is a book known as the Senate Journal. This contains everything that will happen in the current meeting as well as of what has transpired in the legislative session up to that point.

The Senate chamber is directly under the golden dome that is so prominent outside. The dome rises another 50 feet from the ceiling of this chamber. In the center of the room is a chandelier which serves as the center point of Boston. All distance. This city is measured to the spot. On top of this chandelier, there is a fish that is known as the holy mackerel.

It is the Senate's answer to the House of Representatives. Sacred Tub. The Holy Mackerel represents the fishing industry and how big an impact it has had on Massachusetts. Around the room are busts of important people in U.S. history, including George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Two of the most famous presidents, one of the bust. The marketing op ed is the only four are in the statehouse.

Use The French noble was served in the Continental Army on the back wall. The chamber is a quote by Frederick Douglass. Truth, justice, liberty and humanity will ultimately prevail. Douglass, who had escaped slavery, was a famous abolitionist and he also champion for women's rights. Heroes is located in the oldest part of the statehouse, just a set of dark Hall six tall marble panels create a portrait gallery of remarkable women in each battle.

The bronze bust based on period photographs two quotations from the speeches or writings are etched into the marble. On the wall Behind the panels is covered with a wallpaper composed of patterns of isolated documents that relate to the struggles these women waged. The artist's choice of bronze and marble links, the new work to the statues and plaques still held at the statehouse, but with an apparent difference.

The words you read on these panels are the women. So they come from pamphlets, speeches, articles, newspapers, writings, autobiographies, and oral histories. The panels are arranged chronologically, beginning with Dorothea Dix, who was born at the very beginning of the 19th century and ending with Florence Lescaut, who died almost at the end of the slaves. This is Dorothea Dix.

In her lifetime, people with mental illness would often be thrown in jail or to a poorhouse where they would be treated cruelly. She founded 32 mental hospitals in her lifetime to fix this pressing issue. Lucy Stone was an astounding lecturer who gave speeches against slavery and for women's rights in Boston. She founded the American Women's Suffrage Association. And with the help of her husband and daughter, she published influential weekly paper called the Women's Journal.

Sarah Parker Inman was the granddaughter of three African-American revolutionary soldiers. Her brother was the American Anti-Slavery Association's first black lecturer. She followed his footsteps and became a lecturer with them. She later moved away and worked to build support for the North in and around England and stayed there to raise money for newly freed slaves. Josephine said everything recruited for the 54th Regiment during the Civil War, an all black regiment from Massachusetts.

After her husband died, she published a paper called Women's Era, a paper by and for African-American Women. She was also an organizer of the ACP chapter in Boston in front of the league of Women for Community Service, which is still alive today. Mary Kennedy O'Sullivan was the granddaughter of Irish immigrants and got her first factory job at 14.

Angered over the low wages and poor working conditions of the time, she became a trade unionist in 1892 and was employed as a first woman organizer for the American Federation of Labor. Florence Lescaut was one of the first women to graduate from the mighty with degree in architecture and graduated in 1909. She became increasingly interested in politics and ran for a spot on the Boston City Council four times.

Despite coming from all different walks of life, each of these women fought for better rights and better laws through the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Thank you for taking this virtual tour of the Massachusetts Statehouse. If you'd like to learn more, check out these resources.