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The Senate Chamber, 1840-1961:
The Senate Chamber is designed in the shape of a Greek temple and features ornate plaster mouldings and Ionic columns. The room has been restored to its 1840-1865 appearance with its original colors and decorative painting schemes. The 50-member Senate debated and enacted laws in this chamber for 123 years, until it moved to the State Legislative Building in 1963 due to a lack of space and modern conveniences in the Capitol. Today this room is used for educational purposes and special ceremonies.
Most of the furnishings are original. William Thompson, a local cabinet maker, built the 50 mahogany desks between 1838 and 1840. Many of the chairs are reproductions, however, the originals are currently in storage at the State Archives because they are too fragile to use. The Speaker, who has been called the "President of the Senate" since 1868, presided at the upper desk. Meanwhile, clerks sat at the lower desk and newspaper reporters sat at the curved front table. Benches in the galleries above provided seating for the public.
The 1841 gold frame on the northeast wall (right side) contains an 1840 print of the Marquis de Lafayette viewing "Conova's Statue of General George Washington" in 1825 when he toured the state. Lafayette visited the State House to view the new statue of Washington in the rotunda. This lithograph depicts the only known interior view of the State House, which stood on this site from 1794 until it was destroyed by the fire in 1831.
From 1840-1866, when they were sold for scrap, 84-candle chandeliers provided evening lighting in the House and Senate chambers. In 1866, gas chandeliers were installed in both chambers. These fixtures were partially electrified in 1888 and fully electrified in 1926.
The sand-filled wooden boxes that you see before you on the floor of the chambers are known as spit boxes. As the name implies, these boxes functioned as a place to spit while chewing tobacco, an extremely popular practice throughout the 19th century in the tobacco-producing state. |