State Capitols – Tallahassee, Florida

Florida Capitol in Tallahassee (1 March 2010)

Constructed: 1972-1977

Architect: Edward Durell Stone

State Admitted to Union: March 3, 1845 (27th)

State Population (2019): 21,477,737 (3rd)

The next primaries on the calendar, set for March 17, will be in three states with triple-digit delegate counts. We did the Illinois capitol in Springfield in 2013…outside and in. Ohio will have to wait. The big prize this week is Florida.

In keeping with our recent pandemic situation, there is another memory from this trip. The year was 2010. We hit the road for a late winter drive south. There were friends to visit in North Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and Becky would attend a watercolor workshop in Myrtle Beach while I drove on to the Tallahassee capitol. Good thing I drove away because the painting party was blown up by a norovirus outbreak. Not the best time.

Old Florida Capitol, Tallahassee (1 March 2010)

Florida is the 22nd largest state by land area but is the third-most populous after California and Texas. Besides Hawaii, Florida is the only tropical state, and because it is mostly a peninsula with the Gulf of Mexico on one side and the Atlantic on the other, it has the most coastline mileage of any state in the lower 48. Alaska has almost five times the miles of coastline. Here’s a distinction. Of the fifty states, the highest point in the state, Britton Hill, at 345 feet above sea level, is the lowest high point of any state.

Senate Chamber, Old Florida Capitol, Tallahassee (1 March 2010)

Florida was the first area of the continental U.S. to be explored and settled by Europeans. The Spaniard Juan Ponce de Leon arrived here in 1513, over a hundred years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Florida is Spanish for ‘Land of Flowers.’ Since the first settlers here didn’t speak English, we weren’t taught much about them in our northeastern WASP-y elementary school back in the day.

For a few years in the late 1500’s, the French briefly colonized parts of the area. Otherwise, Spain owned the territory, other than during a 20-year period of British control (1763-83), until relinquishing it to the United States in 1821 when it became the Florida Territory. Twenty-four years later, it became our 27th state.

Rotunda, Old Florida Capitol, Tallahassee (1 March 2010)

Since the two principle settlements at the time, Pensacola and St. Augustine, were so far apart, Tallahassee, a mid-way location, was selected as the territorial capital in 1824. The Old Capitol was completed in 1845…just in time to serve as the new statehouse…but way before the real population centers like Miami, Tampa and Orlando blossomed to the south.

Over the years, the old capitol was expanded and enlarged to accommodate the growing state’s government. By the 1970’s, the legislature decided to build a larger, modern complex that includes Senate and House chambers and a 22-story executive office building. The tower design of the New Capitol is similar to the Louisiana, Nebraska and North Dakota Statehouses.

Florida Capitol, Tallahassee (1 March 2010)

The tower lobby has an eight-foot diameter state seal surrounded

by three-foot seals of the five nations that ruled Florida over its 

history – Spain, France, England, the Confederacy and the U.S. of A.

When the tower was completed in 1977, they considered demolishing the Old Capitol, but preservationist public pressure prevailed. The relic was restored to its 1902 appearance and opened as a museum in 1982. The photo at the top of this post shows the new office tower through columns of the Old Capitol.

The Capitol Complex includes four-story buildings that flank the tower on each side. They house the Senate and House chambers, meeting rooms and offices.

Florida Senate (1 March 2010)

The Senate has 40 members. Ringing the chamber below the gallery are portraits of former Presidents of the Senate. Senators are limited to eight years of service but can be elected again after a two-year absence. As with the House, Senate terms begin immediately, upon election.

Florida House of Representatives (1 March 2010)

The House of Representatives has 120 members who are also term-limited to eight years of service. The legislative session lasts 60 days and begins in March. It used to begin in April and the law addressing when the session began said the date would be “the first Tuesday after the first Monday” of the month. The complex language was inserted to avoid meeting on April Fool’s Day. The clowns did have the foresight to avoid that embarrassment. The language remains even though the session now begins in March.

The visit was a pleasant mix of old and new. Given my travel schedule, I did not spend enough time there to appreciate all there was to see. Florida is a unique and interesting place.