NORTH CAROLINA: RALEIGH

 October 2022

On my last day I had several hours to kill after my son went to work and before I had to head to the airport, so I decided to take a look at North Carolina's capital city, Raleigh, named after Sir Walter Raleigh of Roanoke Colony fame. With a population of about 475,000, it is the 41st largest city in the United States, the 2nd most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, and one of the fastest growing cities in the country. In 2011 was ranked by Time as the third most-educated city in the US. 

Andrew Johnson, the 17th President of the US, was born here in 1808. Other notables include Olympic figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi, American Idol star Clay Aiken, and writer David Sedaris.

I was headed for the capitol building, but I detoured when I saw Christ Episcopal Church, built in 1848 to 1853. I love this sculpture entitled Peaceable Francis.

Down the street and around the corner is the First Baptist Church, completed in 1859.

NEW MEXICO, DAY 5: STATE CAPITOL IN SANTA FE

 June 29, 2021

The New Mexico Capitol Building in Santa Fe is the only round capitol in the United States and is sometimes called "The Roundhouse." I love that New Mexico paid this tribute to its local culture instead of mimicking the traditional US Capitol style, as so many states do (although previous iterations of the New Mexico Capitol, most notably the 1900 version, were much more traditional).

This building, dedicated in 1966, is supposed to resemble the Zia sun symbol when viewed from above. The Zia is the symbol on the New Mexico flag, a symbol we saw reproduced all over New Mexico.

As the symbol implies, the Capitol has four similar entrances, differentiated by the sculptures in front of each one. Each entrance is topped by a stone carving of the State Seal of New Mexico.

Door handles are not my usual blog fodder, but check out these turquoise inlay handles.

The rotunda is 49 feet in diameter and 60 feet high. The skylight uses the design of an Indian basket, and the blue- and coral-colored glass represent the sky and earth.

TEXAS, AUSTIN: STATE CAPITOL

 March 24, 2021

We had driven through Austin on a prior visit and had intended to visit the capitol building, but Bob couldn't find a place to park, traffic was awful, and we gave up. This time, however, Bob found a hotel (the Hampton Inn) with an underground parking lot just two blocks from the capitol.  Very nice. In fact, we wouldn't know how nice that parking lot was until the next night when a ferocious hailstorm woke us up in the middle of the night.

Hotel parking lot entrance

The first thing we did after checking into our hotel was walk to the capitol. Like everything in Texas, it is ginormous. In fact, it has the largest gross square footage of all the state capitols. Only the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., is larger. Built in 1888 to replace the previous (and smaller) capitol that was destroyed by fire, its neo-Renaissance style features the domes, columns, plasterwork, and pediments of classical architecture. It is made of red granite sourced from Granite Mountain near present-day Marble Falls, where we had spent the previous night.

Front view

View of dome from behind the building

CALIFORNIA: TULE ELK RESERVE, THE CALIFORNIA STATE CAPITOL, AND SACRAMENTO MURALS

 August 7, 2020

Five months into The Great COVID-19 Epidemic of 2020, we were getting pretty tired of staying home, but we were hesitant to travel. However, when our son Sam proposed meeting up in Northern California to explore the Redwood and Sequoia National Parks and surrounding areas, we figured that was a trip we could make pretty safely at the time. The numbers of cases were down and we would be in a place where we could be outdoors almost all day.

The plan was to pick up Sam at the Redding Airport, so we got an early start and headed north. It is a 600-mile drive, and not always particularly interesting.

About the only excitement was this silo and mailbox painted with cherries. Yup, pretty boring.

Of course, Bob did have to take a side road when he saw a sign for the Tule Elk State Natural Reserve. It is located in the No-Man's Land 20 miles or so west of Bakersfield and three miles off the 5 freeway. Never heard of it? Neither had we.

MASSACHUSETTS: BOSTON - BACK BAY AND BEACON HILL

November 7-11, 2018

Occasionally I get the opportunity to attend a work-related conference in a fun place.  In 2018 I went to Boston for a national Honors conference.

The conference was wonderful, and I made sure that I took every opportunity to explore the local area during lunch and after the last session every day.

I stayed in the Westin Copley Hotel, located in the prestigious Back Bay area of the city, and to get to the conference, which was in the nearby Marriott, I had to walk through Copley Place, a very upscale shopping mall that links the Marriott to the Westin. It was a good ten-minute walk, and for numerous reasons I enjoyed every minute of it every time I did it. 😊

NORTH DAKOTA, BISMARCK: STATE CAPITOL BUILDING

September 13, 2019

One of the things we like to do as we have traveled around to the 50 states is visit the state capitol buildings. There are a lot of states we will have to go back to because we didn't go to the capital city or because it was Sunday and the capitol was closed or because of some other reason.  

But we made it to the capitol in Bismarck, North Dakota's capital.  It was not super exciting, but it had some fun components. 

First, some info on Bismarck itself. It was founded in 1872 by European Americans on the Missouri River and was made the capital in 1889, the year the state was created from the Dakota Territory and admitted to the union as the 39th state. (FYI, it made it in ahead of South Dakota, the 40th state.)  Bismarck has a population of about 75,000 people, not very big, but by no means the smallest capital city.

The original state capitol was built in 1883-1884 to house the territorial government, but it burned to the ground in 1930, requiring that a new building be built during the height of the Great Depression. They came up with this 21-story Art Deco structure, still the tallest building in North Dakota. Its nickname is "The Skyscraper on the Prairie."

They have a very nice state seal, which is in the front entry.

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND: THE STATE HOUSE

I'M SO CONFUSED. You know the building where the governor has his office? What is it called? "The Capitol," you say? Not in Maryland, and not in Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, South Carolina, or Vermont. They all have State Houses.  And then there is Ohio, which, just to be difficult, has a Statehouse. Not to be outdone, Delaware has a Legislative Hall. Geesh.

The Maryland State House is not your typical capitol in spite of the columns out front and the long portico. There is a small, stacked dome rather than the typical massive white one. This building looks like it was built in a different era than most of the capitols we've seen, as indeed it was. Constructed in 1772, it is the oldest state house (and I'm assuming that means oldest capitol building too) in the nation still in legislative use. George Washington himself walked these halls. The treaty that ended the Revolutionary War was ratified here.  For nine months between November 26, 1783, and August 13, 1784, this building even served as the capitol building for the United States, so I guess they can call it what they want, right?

TRENTON, NEW JERSEY: STATE CAPITOL BUILDING

The capital city of New Jersey, Trenton, has a population of about 85,000 and is only the 8th largest city in the state. For some reason, I expect the state capital to be the largest city in the state, even though that is often not the case (as in my own state of California). Trenton is located in almost the exact geographical center of the state (north/south), however, which is more than I can say for Sacramento or many other capital cities.

Trenton does hold the distinction of being the site of George Washington's first victory in December 1776 (the Battle of Trenton, which involved the famous Delaware River crossing), as well as serving for a brief time in 1784 as the United States capital. It was named the capital of New Jersey in 1790, and the "state house" (an early name for a capitol building) was built in 1792, making it the third oldest state house in continuous legislative use in the United States.

The New Jersey State House is unusual in its design as it deviates from the standard capitol architecture that is patterned after the national capitol building, although it does have the customary dome, which can barely be seen in the first picture below:

Here is a better view of the dome. I love its unique design:

Even though the original 1792 building had numerous additions in the 19th century as the state grew, it feels fairly small inside, especially when compared to some of the other cavernous capitols. The central "dome room" or rotunda also serves as the main foyer/waiting room. I did love the dark coral walls and beautiful woodwork:

. . . but this dome--not so much. I couldn't get past the image of a fried egg, sunny side up:

PUERTO RICO: TERRITORIAL CAPITOL BUILDING IN SAN JUAN

Getting dumped off the cruise ship at 6:00 AM is not my idea of fun, but it actually turned out well for us because that meant we had a full morning to finish exploring the parts of San Juan, Puerto Rico, that we had not been able to see before the cruise. We had a cab take us to a local hotel that would store our luggage for us, and then we went (by foot, mind you) to the territorial capitol building, or El Capitolio, as it is known locally.

It's a capitol that would make any state proud, and one that is significantly more majestic and beautiful than many we have seen. Built between 1925 and 1929, with the dome completed in 1961, the Neoclassical capitol is reminiscent of the US Capitol with its central portico, heavy columns, and dome (although the dome is much less ambitious than the grand dome in Washington, DC).

Puerto Rico Territorial Capitol Building in San Juan

US Capitol Building in Washington, DC

We spent quite a bit of time on Constitution Avenue, the street on which the capitol is located. The area across the street from the capitol reminded me of the National Mall in DC--full of war memorials and tributes to great figures in Puerto Rico's past.

ALBANY, NEW YORK: STATE CAPITOL BUILDING

Relatively recently we added state capitals and state capitol buildings to our LISTS OF THINGS TO SEE. That meant that on our last trip to New York, we had to take a major detour to get to the state capital/capitol in Albany, which is about 150 miles north of New York City.

Although only the 16th tallest building in Albany, the capitol, with its castle-like turrets, definitely dominates the skyline. Here's a view from the freeway:

New York, originally called New Netherland (with present-day New York City being New Amsterdam), was settled by the Dutch, and I thought this capitol building looked very Dutch:

Compare it to the town hall in Amsterdam: 

However, many accuse the architects of trying to imitate the Hotel de Ville in Paris, which is perhaps a better comparison:

Photo from here

A blend of Italian Renaissance, Romanesque, and French Renaissance styles, the Albany capitol is said to be the most artistically elaborate state capitol ever built in the United States. I love the long walkway that gives visitors ample time to appreciate the majestic architecture. I could imagine red carpet rolling out in front of us as we approached, and maybe a trumpet or two sounding our arrival:

TOPEKA, KANSAS: STATE CAPITOL BUILDING

Topeka, Kansas, was our third state capital in a week, and the capitol building, along with the one in Lincoln, Nebraska (see post here), and Des Moines, Iowa (see posts here and here), was one of the most beautiful we've seen. It has the classic majestic exterior known to those who are familiar with the US Capitol. At 304 feet, this dome is actually taller than the 288-foot-tall US Capitol dome, but its 50-foot diameter is about half of the US Capitol's 96 feet. It has the look of a rocket ready for launch.

Construction took 37 years, and the capitol was declared finished in 1903. In 1901, a proposal had been submitted for a sculpture of Ceres, goddess of agriculture, to "complete" the tower.  Controversy over the cost and the pagan subject (and her questionable morals) prevented the statue from ever being cast and installed. It wasn't until 1984 that the process for selecting a new design began. The winner of the competition was a sculptor named Richard Bergen, whose design was a Native American warrior shooting an arrow at the sky:

While funds were being raised to pay for the sculpture, the cupola had to be reinforced so that it could hold the 4,420-pound, 22-foot-tall figure. Before it was installed, the finished sculpture was driven 3,000 miles to 35 cities around the state in the back of a truck so that Kansans could see and touch it. It was 2002 before the sculpture was finally lifted in place by a huge crane:

Photo from here

Surprise, surprise! A copy of the Statue of Liberty graces the capitol grounds. This is the third or fourth one we've seen at a capitol.