State Capitols – Frankfort, Kentucky

Kentucky Capitol in Frankfort (9 June 2008)

Constructed: 1905-1909

Architect: Frank Mills Andrews

State Admitted to Union: June 1, 1792 (15th)

State Population (2020): 4,505,836 (26th)

On the great 2008 road trip that concluded the ‘Dead Presidents Quest,’ The ‘State House Odyssey’ began in earnest. Among the capitols between home and the last two graves was Kentucky’s. After posting the stories of three Kentucky vice presidents, it seems only right to include the state house.

Soon after our thirteen colonies became the first United States in 1789, Vermont was added in 1791. Kentucky, carved out of the Viginia Territory, was admitted to the union in 1792. With the larger towns of Louisville and Lexington competing to be the capital, Frankfort was the agreed upon compromise locale.

Pediment, North Entrance [1906] Designed by Charles Niehaus,

carved by Peter Rossack, Kentucky Capitol, Frankfort (22 April 2006)

The central heroic woman is Kentucky. The flanking allegorical 

figures, all classically unclothed, include Progress, Law, 

Plenty, Art and Labor along with the livestock that represent 

Agriculture. In the right corner are Native Americans 

who cower in fear of the encroaching ‘civilization.’

After the first two capitol buildings burned down, a third served the state until the need for more space prompted the construction of the current structure.

Seventy ionic columns surround the 403-foot-long capitol. The architect was clearly taken with the landmarks of France, since the dome, grand staircase and State Reception Room are all modeled after examples in Paris and Versailles.

Kentucky Capitol, Frankfort (9 June 2008)

The capitol building brochure refers to it as “one of the premier public examples of Beaux Arts classical architecture in the United States.” I would agree. The central nave/atrium is a spectacular space.

Great Hall, Kentucky Capitol, Frankfort (9 June 2008)

At each end of the atrium is a grand staircase. Thirty-six columns of solid Vermont granite are 26-feet tall and weigh ten tons. The capitol information boasts that the only machine used in the entire capitol construction was the cement mixer. Each solid column inside and out was lifted into place by pulleys and hand labor. When installed, each column cost $1,968. Today, you can’t get a formal drawing of a column for that amount.

The phosphate and calcium content of Kentucky soil makes it especially good for farming and raising the thoroughbred horses for which the Bluegrass State is known. Tobacco is the state’s leading cash crop and it was not until 2004 when the state finally banned smoking inside the capitol.

Kentucky Senate, Frankfort (9 June 2008)

The Senate has 38 members.

First Ladies Dolls, Kentucky Capitol, Frankfort (9 June 2008)

As in the Iowa state house, Kentucky has a display of female dolls dressed in what are believed to be replicas of the dresses they wore at their husbands’ inaugurations. One state journalist has called them creepy and said they should be removed.

Kentucky House of Representatives, Frankfort (9 June 2008)

The House has 100 members.

Abe and Jeff Together Again

Kentucky Capitol, Frankfort (9 June 2008)

Placed among the honored sons of Kentucky and one of four in the central rotunda space is the traitor president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. Installed in 1936, the Daughters of the Confederacy decided the Lost Cause needed to be pumped up seventy years after its defeat. It shared the space with Henry Clay, pioneering surgeon Ephraim McDowell and vice president Alben Barkley. Righting rebel wrongs has finally caught on in the twenty-first century. In 2018, they decided to keep the statue but remove the plaque that called him a patriot and hero. Two years later, the statue was finally taken away.

 

Rotunda, Kentucky Capitol, Frankfort (9 June 2008)

With the Lincoln statue occupying the central location beneath

the oculus, I was unable to get the preferred balanced view.

An impressive state house this was.