Montana State Capitol
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The Montana State Capitol is the state capitol building of the U.S. state of Montana. Housing the Montana State Legislature, it is located in the state capital of Helena at 1301 East Sixth Avenue. The building was constructed between 1896 and 1902 with wings added between 1909 and 1912.
Before Montana was a state, it was a United States Territory. The city of Helena became the territorial capital in 1875. Montana gained statehood in 1889, and in a controversial 1894 statewide election, Montana voters chose Helena over Anaconda as the new capital. In 1895, Montana established a Capitol Commission to build the statehouse; an architect was picked and plans were drafted for a $1 million building. Construction began in 1899.
But soon Rep. Fred Whiteside of Flathead County exposed the commission’s crooked scheme to embezzle hundreds of the thousands of dollars and build a cut-rate Capitol. The commission was disbanded and its records destroyed. The state architect died under mysterious circumstances. A second Capitol Commission started from scratch, and tossed out the original design.
For over a century, the origin of the statue which was placed atop the Capitol dome was a mystery. The accepted story was that during the scandal-ridden construction of the Capitol, a copper-clad bronze statue of a 17-foot-tall woman wearing a flowing gown, holding up a torch in one hand and a shield with the other, arrived by railroad from an Ohio foundry. Because the construction records of the first Capitol Commission had been destroyed, nobody knew what it was for, who made it, or who had bought it, but the capitol builders determined that the building needed a statue. The "Goddess of Liberty", was then appropriated and placed upon the copper dome.
The truth about the statue was discovered in August of 2006, when it was learned that Belgian-born Edward Y. Van Landeghem of Philadelphia was the sculptor. The late sculptor's granddaughter, Alice Nagle of Pennsylvania, contacted the Montana Historical Society after discovering in her grandfather's effects a 1902 Philadelphia Times newspaper clipping and photo showing Van Landeghem with the statue, which he had christened "Montana".
Copper played a big part in Montana history. In fact, the political battle between Anaconda and Helena for selection as capital city was stirred up by two men who had made millions of dollars by mining copper. Daly wishing to gain political advantage in his mining ventures supported Anaconda and Clark wishing to thwart Daly promoted Helena. Each Copper King used the newspapers they owned to convince the public to vote for their city. In this hotly contested struggle there were allegations of bribery and counterfeit ballots.
A statue of Civil War Union general Thomas Francis Meagher on horseback with sword raised was added to the front of the Capitol in 1905. In 1864 he took over as governor of the Montana Territory while the governor was away. He wrote an early constitution for Montana, hoping it would be used if Montana became a state. He mysteriously drowned while waiting for a shipment of guns on a riverboat at Fort Benton on the Missouri River.
Like the United States government, Montana's legislature has two houses, a senate and a house of representatives. The state government also has three branches like the federal government. The Capitol was enlarged to make more room for the executive (the Governor), judicial (Montana Supreme Court), and the legislative (Senate and House of Representatives) branches.
The first thing visitors see inside the building is the massive rotunda. Huge columns and colorful paintings decorate the main area. Around the rotunda are four round paintings showing four important kinds of people in Montana's early history. The Native American, the explorer, the gold miner, and the cowboy were painted for the Capitol opening in 1902.
One of the Capitol's main attractions is a giant painting by Montana's famous Western artist Charles M. Russell. The painting, called "Lewis and Clark Meeting Indians at Ross' Hole", is 25 feet long and twelve feet high. It depicts the scene where the explorers Lewis and Clark asked Montana's Salish Indians for the safest route to cross the mountains to the Pacific Ocean. The canvas on which it's painted was so big that Russell had to have the roof raised on his studio to paint it. It's displayed above the Speaker's chair in the House of Representatives' chamber.
Near the center of the Capitol, up the Grand Stairway and on the second floor, is a statue of Jeannette Rankin. She was the first woman in America to be elected (1916) to the U.S. House of Representatives.
The multi-million dollar renovation of the century-old structure, which still serves as an office building began in 1997. Extensive interior repairs included restorations and renovations, including new wiring for computers.
[edit] External links
- Montana Capitol Restoration Foundation
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
- Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth
