Evening star., 1943-09-01
Letters to the Editor
Anniversary Prompts Question
On How Capitol Got Its Name.
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anniversary prompts Question
On How Capitol Got Its Name.
To the Editor of The Star:
The nearness of September 49, the
sesquicentennial date of the LAYING of
the cornerstone of the United States
Capitol, makes it appropriate to raise
an interesting, but neglected, question.
Perhaps the incomplete answer which
I am able to give will stimulate others
to contribute additional clues
The question is: Why is the Capitol
called the Capitol? There is tendency
to give the offhand answer that there is
no real question about 1T at all-that
that is just the usual name for such a
building, dating back to Roman times.
The answer is by no means so simple,
and, in fact, there is series of uues-
lions to be answered in tracing the use
OF the word from Rome to the United
States of America.
In the first place (using a reverse
chronological order from present to
past, the present common acceptance of
the word is evidently the result of the
naming of our Federal Capitol and not a
key to its origin. Capitol as the name of
the building occupied by the legislature.
often jointly with other governmental
branches, is distinctly United States
custom today. have visited number
of legislative halls in both hemispheres.
and the only one I can recall as being
so named outside of the United States
Is the Capitolio in Havana That build
Ing, like number Of State Capitols
shows Washington influence in its
architecture as well as in its name.
A century and half ago, State House
and not Capitol was the usual name for
the governmental headquarters, and that
is still an alternative name in num-
ber of States, perhaps even the more
usual name in a few. What name was
customary before the colonies became
States is a matter on which I have
no conclusive information. but perhaps
some one else can supply it. In Virginia
only so far as I know, was the name
Capitol in use before the building OF the
Capitol in Washington.
Maj l. Enfant's original city map
advertisement calling for designs for the
public buildings asked for plans "for
Capitol much as if that were we'll
recognized name. Preliminary to this
advertisement, Secretary of State Jeffer-
son used the name in a letter to the
Commissioners under date of March 6,
1892 Perhaps jefferson is responsible for
transferring the name from Virginia to
the Federal City, and perhaps the name
Was familiar to people of other States by
the influence of Virginia's statesmen and
by knowledge of historic events in the
Capitol at Richmond or the earlier ones
at Williamsburg. Can any one give any
other evidence OF the currency of the
word in America at that time?
I have seen it stated that the first
known use of the name in America
spelled, as it happens, "Capitoll"-is In
documents of 1899 calling for tine erec-
ton of building to be officially so called,
at the time of the removal of the Vir-
ginia government from jamestown to
Middle Plantation, which at the same
time was also given a new name of
Williamsburg. But was the name of the
new governmental building just whim
of Virginia's new Governor Col. Francis
Nicholson, or evidence of some wider
usage?
OF course there was Capitol, or
Capitolium in the Latin, In ancient
Rome, but 1t Is not clear to me why