image of the State House , before wings were added to the building The building is situated on of land on top of Beacon Hill in
Boston, opposite the
Boston Common on
Beacon Street. It was built on land once owned by
John Hancock.
Dome The original wood dome, which leaked, was covered with copper in 1802 by
Paul Revere's
Revere Copper Company. The dome was first painted gray and then light yellow before being gilded with
gold leaf in 1874. During
World War II, the dome was painted gray once again, to prevent reflection during blackouts and to protect the city and building from bombing attacks. The dome was re-gilded in 1969, at a cost of $36,000. Then, in July 1997, the dome was once again re-gilded, in 23k gold. The estimated cost this time was $1.5 million. The dome is topped with a gilded, wooden pine cone, symbolizing both the importance of Boston's lumber industry during early colonial times and of the state of Maine, which was a
district of the Commonwealth when the Bulfinch section of the building was completed. Other statues in front of the building include
Daniel Webster, educator
Horace Mann, and former U.S. President
John F. Kennedy. The statues of
Anne Hutchinson and
Mary Dyer are located on the lawns below the east and west wings. Inside the building is a
statue of William Francis Bartlett, an officer in the Civil War.
Interior The original red-brick Bulfinch building contains the Governor's offices (on the west end) with the
Massachusetts Senate occupying the former
House of Representatives Chamber under the dome. The
Massachusetts House of Representatives occupies a chamber on the west side of the Brigham addition. Hanging over this chamber is the "
Sacred Cod", which was given to the House of Representatives in 1784 by a Boston merchant. The Sacred Cod symbolizes the importance of the
fishing industry to the early Massachusetts economy. The House Chamber is decorated with murals by
Albert Herter, father of Massachusetts Gov.
Christian Herter. Murals on the second floor under the dome were painted by artist
Edward Brodney. Brodney won a competition to paint the first mural in a contest sponsored by the
Works Progress Administration in 1936. It is entitled "Columbia Knighting Her World War Disabled". Brodney could not afford to pay models, and friends and family posed. The model for Columbia was Brodney's sister Norma Brodney Cohen, and the model for the soldier on one knee in the foreground was his brother Fred Brodney. In 1938, he painted a second mural under the dome called "World War Mothers". The models were again primarily friends and family members, with sister Norma sitting beside their mother Sarah Brodney. Above the murals, the names of 53 Massachusetts citizens honored in 1895 were inscribed:
Carver,
Bradford,
Endecott,
Winthrop,
Vane,
Pickering,
Knox,
Lincoln,
John Adams,
Dane,
Quincy,
J. Q. Adams,
Webster,
Sumner,
Wilson,
Andrew,
Choate,
Parsons,
Shaw,
Story,
Everett,
Phillips,
Garrison,
Mann,
Howe, Allen,
Devens,
Bartlett,
Putnam,
Franklin,
Bowditch,
Peirce,
Agassiz,
Bulfinch,
Morse,
Morton,
Bell,
Bancroft,
Prescott,
Motley,
Parkman,
Emerson,
Hawthorne,
Holmes,
Bryant,
Longfellow,
Lowell,
Whittier,
Copley,
Hunt,
Edwards,
Channing,
Brooks. A staircase in front of the Bulfinch building leads from Beacon Street to Doric Hall inside the building. The large main doors inside Doric Hall are only opened on three occasions: • When the
President of the United States or a foreign head of state visits. • When the Governor exits the building on his or her last day in office. The Governor descends the staircase, crosses Beacon Street, and enters
Boston Common, symbolically rejoining the people of Massachusetts as a private citizen. • When a regimental flag is returned from battle. Since the regimental flags now return to Washington, D.C., this has not been done since the Vietnam War. Memorial Hall, also known as the Hall of Flags, is a room that sits central to the state house's second floor. The room displays regiment flags of returning Massachusetts soldiers from various regiments across every war since the
Civil War. The stained glass skylight above contains the seals of the original
Thirteen Colonies of the United States, with the Massachusetts seal in the center. The
Samuel Adams and Paul Revere time capsule is a metal box located in a cornerstone of the State House, placed there in the late 18th century and rediscovered in 2014. The contents include coins, newspaper clippings, and other historical artifacts. ==Offices==