VII

Map of Capitol Hill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii

Window trim, ca. 1806 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv

CHAPTER ONE

View of the Potomac and the City of Washington, Detail . . . . . . 2

View of the Federal Edifice in New York (Doolittle) . . . . . 4

Robert Morris Moving the Capitol to Philadelphia . . . . . . . 6

Philadelphia in 1858 (Richardt) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Pierre L’Enfant (DeHart) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

PLAN of the CITY of Washington, Detail (L’Enfant) . . . . 9

Brick Market, Newport, Rhode Island . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Maryland Statehouse, Annapolis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Delaware Statehouse, Dover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Virginia State Capitol, Richmond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Plan for the Capitol (Jefferson) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Respective View of the Federal House (Carshore) . . . . . . . 15

Proposed Design for the Capitol (Dobie) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

An Elevation for a Capitol (Diamond) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Proposed Design for the Capitol (Wintersmith) . . . . . . . . . 16

Proposed Design for the Capitol (McIntire) . . . . . . . . . . 17

Elevation of the “Fancy Piece” (Hallet) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Tortola Scheme (Thornton) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Design for the Capitol, East Elevation (Thornton) . . . . . . 21

Final Capitol Design (Hallet) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Portrait of William Thornton (Stuart) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Revised Design of the Capitol (Hadfield) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

West Front (Thornton) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Model of the Thornton Design of 1797 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Conjectural Reconstruction of William Thornton’s 

Original Plan, 1793 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Conference Plan, Ground Story (Hallet) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Courtyard Plan, Ground Story (Hallet) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Plan, Ground Story (Thornton) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Watercolor View of the Capitol (Birch) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

First Floor Plan of the North Wing As Completed 

in 1800 (Conjectural Reconstruction) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Second Floor Plan of the North Wing As Completed 

in 1800 (Conjectural Reconstruction) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

ILLUSTRATIONS

Section of the North Wing Looking South, ca. 1800

(Conjectural Reconstruction) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Temporary House Chamber (the “Oven”) Looking

North (Conjectural Reconstruction) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

CHAPTER TWO

Section of the South Wing, Detail (Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Statue of Thomas Jefferson (David d’Angers) . . . . . . . . . . 50

Portrait of B. Henry Latrobe (Peale) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

The Capitol As It Appeared in 1803 (Conjectural

Reconstruction) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

A Section of the House of Commons Dublin . . . . . . . . . 55

Ecole de Chirurgie (School of Surgery, Poulleau) . . . . . . 55

Plan of the Second, or Principal Story of the South 

Wing (Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Plan of the Ground Story of the South Wing of

the Capitol (Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Section of the South Wing, Looking South (Latrobe) . . . . . . 59

Sketch of a Section of the South Wing of the 

Capitol of the United States at Washington,

of the Doric Order, Roman style (Latrobe) . . . . . . . 59

Seating Plan of the House of Representatives in the 

Library of Congress, 1804 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Halle au Bled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

House Chamber Ceiling and Roof Details (Latrobe) . . . . . 64

View of Capitol from the Northeast (Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . 66

Corinthian Order of the Choragic Monument of 

Lysicrates, Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Tower of the Winds, Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Capital Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Vestibule of the House of Representatives . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Latrobe Committee Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Ground Plan of the North Wing of the Capitol of 

the United States shewing it, as proposed to 

be altered, on the Ground Story (Latrobe) . . . . . . . . 78

Plan, shewing the alterations proposed in the 

principal Story of the North Wing of the 

Capitol (Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
VIII Illustrations

Plan of the Principal Story of the Capitol. 

U. S. (Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Lower Plan of the Original Senate Chamber Prior to

Reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Supreme Court Vaulting Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

North Wing Principal Staircase (Conjectural 

Reconstruction) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Details of the Supreme Court Chamber (Latrobe) . . . . . . . 84

Design of the Library of Congress of the United 

States (Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Temporary Senate Chamber (Bridport) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Corn Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Corn Column, Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Details of the upper Columns in the Gallery of

the Entrance of the Chamber of the Senate 

U. States (Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

President’s Chair &c. Senate U. S. (Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . 90

View of the Capitol from the Northeast (Latrobe) . . . . . . . 91

West Elevation of the Capitol (Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

West Approach to the Capitol (Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

South Elevation of the Capitol (Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Model of Latrobe’s Capitol Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

CHAPTER THREE

Capitol in Ruins, Detail (Munger) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Capitol in Ruins (Munger) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Ruins of the House Chamber (Andrei) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Sketch of a Design for altering the plan of the 

House of Representatives in the Capitol U. S. at

Washington (Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Design proposed for the Hall of Representatives 

U. S. Section from North to South (Latrobe) . . . . . . 104

Brick Capitol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Section of the North Wing, Looking North (Latrobe) . . . . . . 109

Plan of the Attic Story of the North Wing of the 

Capitol U. S. as authorized to be built (Latrobe) . . . 110

Details of the Center Building and the North Wing 

(Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Tobacco Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Preliminary Design for the Small Senate Rotunda 

(Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Supreme Court Chamber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Framing Details of the Senate Ceiling (Latrobe) . . . . . . . . 116

Section of the South Wing, Looking South (Latrobe) . . . . . 117

Ground Story of the Capitol U. S. (Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . 118

Plan of the Principal Floor of the Capitol U. S. 

(Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Ionic Order of the Erechtheion, Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

House Chamber Details (Latrobe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Car of History (Franzoni) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

CHAPTER FOUR

View of the Capitol, Detail (Burton) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Portrait of Charles Bulfinch (Matthews) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Senate Chamber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Copy of Ground plan of the Capitol showing the 

Projection and division of the Center according 

to the plan of Mr. Latrobe (Bulfinch) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Ground plan of the Capitol of the United States 

showing the Projection and division of the Center

according to the Plan approved by the President 

and in part erected (Bulfinch) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

A back View of the Capitol (Price) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

The Crypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Ionic Order (Bulfinch) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Plan of the First Floor, Center Building (Bulfinch) . . . . . . 138

Western Staircase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

View of the Capitol Looking Southeast (de Hersant) . . . . . . . 141

Night Session in the House (Morse) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Study for Night Session in the House (Morse) . . . . . . . . 143

Dome Studies (Bulfinch) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Section of the Rotunda and Dome As Completed 

by Bulfinch (Conjectural Reconstruction) . . . . . . . . . . 146

West Portico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Stoves in the Library at Washington (Bulfinch) . . . . . . 148

View, Congress Library, Capitol, Washington

(Davis and Gimber) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Model of the Capitol with Portico and Dome 

Designs by Latrobe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

The Capitol At Washington (Busby) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

The Rotunda (A. J. Davis) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

The Pantheon (Panini) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

The Rotunda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Choragic Monument of Thrasyllus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

East Portico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Preliminary Terrace Plan and Landscape 

Improvements (Bulfinch) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

View of the Capitol (Burton) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Gate House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

South Gateway of Capitol at Washington, D. C.

(Kollner) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Representatives’ Principal Staircase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Model of the Capitol As Completed by Bulfinch 

(Looking Northwest) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Model of the Capitol As Completed by Bulfinch 

(Looking Northeast) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

CHAPTER FIVE

The Capitol, Detail (Cranch) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

The Capitol, Looking Southwest (Strickland) . . . . . . . . . . 170

Elevation and Plans (A. J. Davis):

East Elevation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Foundations and Basements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

First, or Ground Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Second, or Principal Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Statue of George Washington (Greenough) . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

The Ascent to the Capitol, Washington (Wallis) . . . . . . . 177

The Capitol (Cranch) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Capitol, South West View (artist unknown) . . . . . . . . . . 179

Section Through the Hall of Representatives in

front of the Speaker’s Chair, Looking North

(Strickland) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

United States Senate Chamber (Doney) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

The Capitol (Plumbe) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Henry Clay Addressing the Senate, 1850

(Rothermel) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

CHAPTER SIX

The Capitol Extension, Detail (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Eliza and Robert Mills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Sketch of Duplicate Building with outer Wing 

Buildings of Communication forming a square 

court within with Galleries all round (Mills) . . . . . . 189

Thomas U. Walter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Founders Hall, Girard College . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Illustrations IX

Design For An Enlargement of the U. S. Capitol,

Washington, D. C. (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Design For An Enlargement of the U. S. Capitol,

Washington, D. C. (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Perspective View of a Design For Enlarging the 

U. S. Capitol (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Proposed Enlargement of the Capitol (Mills) . . . . . . . . . . 192

Principal Floor Plan (Mills) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Design For An Extension of the U. S. Capitol

(Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Design For An Extension of the U. S. Capitol, 

Washington, D. C. (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Capitol with the Approved Extension Design 

(Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Plans of the North Wing (Walter, 1851):

First Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Second Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Third Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Plans of the South Wing (Walter, 1851):

First Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Second Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Third Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Section of South Wing (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Eastern Elevation, South Wing (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

The New Capitol (artist unknown) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Section of the New Library Room, Looking West 

(Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Section of the New Library Room, Looking North 

(Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Perspective of Console Supporting Ceiling (Walter) . . . 208

Details of Roof of Congressional Library (Walter) . . . . . . 208

Library of Congress, Looking North . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Present State of the Capitol at Washington

(after Doepler) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Capitol with a New Dome, Detail (Walter) . . . . . . . . . 214

Jefferson Davis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Captain Montgomery C. Meigs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Revised Plan of the South Wing, Principal Story 

(Walter and Meigs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Revised Plan of the North Wing, Principal Story 

(Walter and Meigs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Transverse Section, South Wing, Looking East 

(Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Original Design of New Dome on the U. S. Capitol

(Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Elevation of New Dome (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Peristyle of Dome (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

View of the Capitol with the New Dome (Walter) . . . . . . . 232

Section through the New Dome and Rotunda (Walter) . . . 232

View of the Capitol After Removal of the Old Dome . . . . . . . 234

View of the Capitol, Looking Southeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

A Dome Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Model of the Capitol with the New Dome . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Center Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Delivery of Iron Column Shaft . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Detail of Exterior Marble Work, Principal Entrance, 

South Wing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Western Stairway, South Wing (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

East Monumental Stairway, Senate Wing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Section Thro’ CORRIDOR, South Wing (Walter) . . . . . . 240

Hall of Columns Corinthian Order and Anta . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Details of Doors, Basement (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Details of Windows, Attic Story (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Details of Senate Chamber (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Capitol Workshops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Eastern Elevation of North Wing, Capitol 

Extension (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Bronze Doors, Senate Wing (Crawford) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Bronze Doors, House Wing (Crawford) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Bronze Doors, Detail from Senate Doors: Washington 

Laying the Capitol’s Cornerstone (Crawford) . . . . . . . . 249

House Committee on Agriculture Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Thomas Crawford’s First Design for Freedom . . . . . . . . . 254

Thomas Crawford’s Second Design for Freedom . . . . . . . 254

Plaster Model of Freedom (Crawford) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Senate Committee on Naval Affairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Statue of America (Crawford) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

CHAPTER EIGHT

Section Through Dome of U. S. Capitol, Detail 

(Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

John B. Floyd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Plan of Ceiling of House of Representatives

(Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Doors in Gallery Fronts (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Details of Fly Doors in Gallery Fronts (Walter) . . . . . . 266

Design for Chairs of Halls of Congress (Walter) . . . . . . 266

Speaker’s Clerk’s and Reporter’s Desks. Hall of 

Representatives (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Details of South Wing (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Speaker’s Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Sconce in Speaker’s Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

House Chamber, ca. 1865 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Design for Clock for Hall of Representatives

(Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Extension and Dome Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Senate Chamber Under Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Details of Roof of North Wing (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

North Corridor in Front of the House Gallery . . . . . . . . . . 275

Dome Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Private Stairway, North Wing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Bronze Eagle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Plaster Models for Progress of Civilization

(Crawford) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Senate Committee on Military Affairs Room . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Design of the Desk Fronts for the Vice President, 

Clerks, and Reporters (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Portrait of Senator William Seward (Leutze) . . . . . . . . . . 284

South Corridor in Front of the Senate Chamber . . . . . . . . 285

Senate Chamber, 1867 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

The President’s Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Revised Dome Design (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Section through Dome of U. S. Capitol (Walter) . . . . . . 289

Coil for Senate Chamber (Walter and Meigs) . . . . . . . . . 291

Fan for Committee Rooms (Walter and Meigs) . . . . . . . . . 291

Steam Engine and Fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

Senate Reception Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

CHAPTER NINE

Marble Cutters, Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Exterior Order (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Marble Delivery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Marble Cutters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Senator’s Retiring Room, 1890 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
X Illustrations

Design for Removing Senate Chamber From the 

Centre of the Wing to the North and West Fronts 

Per Senate Resolution of Mar. 10, 1860 (Walter) . . . 304

Supreme Court Chamber, ca. 1900 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Law Library, ca. 1900 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Plan, Section, and Details of Ceiling of Western 

Staircase, North Wing (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Column Shaft Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Details of Construction of Tholus (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . 311

Union Troops at the Capitol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Troops in the Rotunda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Dome Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Bird’s-eye View of the City of Washington with 

Capitol in Foreground (Andrews) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Dome Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Plan and Sections of Vestibule of North Wing 

(Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Senate Vestibule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Ceiling of Senate Vestibule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Senate Portico Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

View of Washington City, D. C. (Sache) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

N. E. View of the United States Capitol, 

Washington, D. C. (Sartain) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Columbus Doors (Rogers) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Elevation of the Tholus (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

Section of the Tholus (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

Capitol, Looking Southwest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Statuary Hall, ca. 1890 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Capitol with the Proposed East Front Extension 

(Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Plan of the Capitol with Additions to the East 

and West Fronts (Walter) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Capitol, Looking Northeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

CHAPTER TEN

Scene at the Pennsylvania Avenue Entrance to

the Capitol at Washington on the Daily 

Adjournment of Congress, Detail (Dielman) . . . . . . . 336

Portrait of Edward Clark (Brumidi) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

View of the Capitol, from the Southeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Portico Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Detail of Portico Stonework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Inner Dome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

The Rotunda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

View of the Capitol, Looking Southwest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Scene at the Pennsylvania Avenue Entrance 

to the Capitol at Washington on the Daily 

Adjournment of Congress (Dielman) . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Justin S. Morrill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Frederick Law Olmsted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

View of the Capitol, Looking Southeast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

General Plan for the Improvement of the U. S. 

Capitol Grounds (Olmsted) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Design for a Fountain (Wisedell and Olmsted) . . . . . . . . . 348

Design for an Entrance Pier (Wisedell and Olmsted) . . . . . . 348

Capitol Police Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

The Capitol with a Proposed Library Extension 

(Wisedell) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Bartholdi Fountain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Statue of John Marshall (Story) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

The Proposed Terrace of the Capitol at 

Washington (Hawley) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Rooms Under Terrace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Terrace Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Exedra and Central Fountain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

The Summerhouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Young Visitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

The Capitol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Speaker’s Room, ca. 1900 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Members Retiring Room, ca. 1880 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

The Press Corps, ca. 1895 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Aftermath of the Gas Explosion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Library of Congress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Demolition of the Iron Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Lobby in the Old Library of Congress Space . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Plan of the Rooms Built in the Old Library of 

Congress Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Removal of the Roof over the Old Senate Chamber . . . . . 371

Roof Replacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

Statuary Hall, ca. 1902 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

Rebuilding the Floor in the House Chamber . . . . . . . . . . . 373

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Laying the Cornerstone of the Senate Office 

Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

Joseph G. Cannon at the Speaker’s Rostrum . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Elliott Woods in His Laboratory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

House Office Building Design “C” by Elliott Woods . . . . . . 379

John M. Carrère and Thomas Hastings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Committee on Military Affairs, House Office Building . . . . . . . 382

Member’s Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Construction of the House Office Building . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

House Office Building Caucus Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

House Office Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Rotunda, Senate Office Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Senate Caucus Room Under Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Committee Room, Senate Office Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Senate Office Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Capitol Power Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Two Designs for Architectural Improvements in 

the Rotunda by August Schoenborn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

The Rotunda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Peace Protecting Genius (Bartlett) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Unveiling of The Apotheosis of Democracy . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Scheme “A” for Rebuilding the House Chamber 

(Carrère and Hastings) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Scheme “B” for Rebuilding the House Chamber 

(Carrère and Hastings) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

House Chamber with New Floor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

House Chamber with New Seating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

The Grounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

The Grounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Stair Repair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Capitol Storeroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

Senate Barber Shop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Design for a New Senate Chamber (Carrère and 

Hastings) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Portrait of Cass Gilbert (Aitken) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

Supreme Court Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Supreme Court Law Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Longworth House Office Building, Preliminary 

Lobby Design (Allied Architects) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406

Longworth House Office Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406

View of the Enlarged Grounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407

Proposal for a Memorial to Abraham Lincoln 

(Burnham) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Illustrations XI

“Completion of U. S. Senate Office Building” 

(Wyeth and Sullivan) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

U. S. Botanic Garden Conservatory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Bartholdi Park . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Adams Building of the Library of Congress . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

Statuary Hall, 1932 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

Hall of Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

Senate Chamber, ca. 1949 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

Senate Chamber, 1949 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

House Chamber, 1949 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Senate Chamber, 1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

House Chamber, 1995 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

CHAPTER TWELVE

Aerial View of the Capitol, Looking West . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

Original Design for the Second Senate Office 

Building (Eggars & Higgins) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

Speaker Sam Rayburn and J. George Stewart . . . . . . . . . . 421

Speaker Rayburn’s Working Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

Condition of Exterior Sandstone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Portico Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

Portico Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

Portico Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

East Front Columns at the National Arboretum . . . . . . . . 429

East Front Construction and Dome Repair . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

Dome Repair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

East Front Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

New Senate Reception Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives . . . . . . 432

East Front Lobby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Rayburn Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436

Rayburn Building’s Finishing Touches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436

Committee Room in the Rayburn Building . . . . . . . . . . . . 436

Vice President’s Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

Taft Memorial and Carillon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

Study for the West Front Extension (DeWitt, 

Poor & Shelton) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

Revised Design for the West Front Extension 

(DeWitt, Poor & Shelton) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Restoration of the West Front . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

West Front Restoration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

The West Front . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

West Courtyard Prior to Infill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Courtyard Infill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Inaugural Luncheon for President John F. Kennedy . . . . . . . 445

Old Senate Chamber, 1970 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Supreme Court Chamber Prior to Restoration . . . . . . . . . 446

Supreme Court Chamber Prior to Restoration . . . . . . . . . 446

Section of the Old Senate Chamber and Old Supreme 

Court Chamber (DeWitt, Poor & Shelton) . . . . . . . . . . 447

Supreme Court Chamber, 1996 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448

Supreme Court Chamber, 1996 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449

Old Senate Chamber, 1996 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

Statuary Hall, 1988 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451

Rendering of the Philip Hart Senate Office Building 

(Warneke) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

Atrium in the Hart Senate Office Building . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

Capitol Hill with Proposed Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454

James Madison Memorial (DeWitt, Poor & Shelton) . . . . . . 454

Rendering of the James Madison Memorial Building of

the Library of Congress (DeWitt, Poor & Shelton) . . . 455

The Master Plan for the United States Capitol . . . . . . . . . 456

Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building . . . . . . . . . 458

Bicentennial Ceremony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458

Statue of Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

The East Front . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

Capitol Floor Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

Unless otherwise indicated, illustrations are from the

records or collections of the Architect of the Capitol.
NORTH