Arkansas and the Best Laid Plan

When planning a state capitol, of course the people involved want every dramatic feature they can think of and afford. Arkansas couldn't afford too much drama in their building, but they had great plans for the setting. Imagine a major avenue approaching their new capitol for quite a distance, straight as an arrow toward the grand main entrance. Perfect.

The site for the capitol in Little Rock was custom-made for the plan. It was a good size and state-owned, with an obsolete prison on it. Fifth Street was already aimed at the center from one side, and with the prison still there, complete with surrounding walls and prisoners to do much of the labor at minimal cost, what could go wrong?

When it was time to plan the foundation for the new capitol, a builder on the appointed Commission climbed the prison wall opposite Fifth Street. He eyeballed where the center axis of the capitol would be, in line with the center of the street, without any surveying equipment. He then directed the initial, center stake for the dome to be driven in based on that line and climbed down. From that single stake, the building was laid out and built on a true north/south axis.

Remember the prison walls? They eventually came down, as was planned, after much of the construction was completed. That's when someone realized Fifth Street was not built on a true east/west axis. Their dramatic approach to their new capitol is about nine degrees off.

The image above shows the Arkansas capitol with a very interesting, slanted, double sidewalk leading from the front entrance to the street. The dome is easily distinguishable with half of it a sunlit circle and the other half dark.

The capitol is located in the left half of the image on the right. The slanted sidewalk and half-lit dome are easy to find, and the nine degree slant is obvious. Fifth Street really does point right at the center of the dome.

Colorado's Beautiful Women

All they wanted was a statue of the most beautiful woman in the state for the capitol dome in Denver. But how would they find her? Well, the story sounds kind of like a joke . . .

"Did you hear the one about the room-full of politicians? They decided to take a vote on who the most beautiful woman was in their state. One guy voted for his daughter, and the women voted for themselves!"

To be fair, I heard years ago from another source that some of the men voted for their wives and mothers, but the effect was the same. No statue was ever made, and the Colorado capitol dome is topped with a four-foot-diameter glass globe with a light inside.

Vermont's Comedy Team Under the Dome

According to the Vermont Legislature's website, "Ammi Young's classic Greek Revival statehouse of the 1830's held a dome that was subtly expressed on the building's interior with skylights over the flanking staircases. Today's State House was to have the same interior effect, but circumstances during constructions in 1858-59 resulted in a dome that has no interior expression whatsoever."

You see, Ammi Young's statehouse burned down, and today's capitol was built to replace it, but with a major difference under the dome. A tour of today's capitol provided the story below to explain that difference and the "circumstances during constructions" mentioned above. I like to picture the main planners as a comedy team. You know, the kind of comedy team that is supposed to work together, but they constantly argue. Today we could be talking about Stewie and Brian from "Family Guy." In the slapstick era, it would have been the Three Stooges. Now imagine either team as the architect and engineer working on rebuilding the Vermont capitol after the fire in the 1850s.

Apparently the architect had designed a rotunda (of some sort) for under the dome like we usually see under domes, an attractive space with sunlit stained glass above. The engineer felt it would not be sound and the dome would fall, which would not be attractive and would ruin the stained glass. They argued about the rotunda all during the early construction. Can you hear it?

Stewie: "Can't you see your overly spacious plan is doomed to fail? " and Brian: "No. It's safe, and it follows the newest trend in municipal architecture. "

Or, Moe: "What's the matter with you? I know what I'm doin' ya lunkhead." and Curly: "It'll never woik. It's gonna be a disastah!" (slap-slap-poke)

Then, the architect went out of town on another project. Well, Stewie and Curly don't normally work alone, but this part wasn't in the script, so what could they do? They would have to do something, and it would be something big. The engineer had the dome sealed off while the architect was away to settle the matter and eliminate any form of rotunda at all. No stained glass, no nice space. Nothing was done later to return to the architect's plans, and now the dome "has no interior expression whatsoever." Of course, it also did not collapse.

The accuracy of this story is not guaranteed. Local lore, which might well be part of a capitol tour, often comes up with more entertaining accounts than the history books. Of course, I also had some fun with it.