Existing comment:
Disaster
Age and overcrowding took its toll on the Capitol's structure.
Plans for the Capitol's improvement ceased with the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, as both the Virginia General Assembly and the Confederate Congress. Photographs of the Capitol at the end of the war depict a building badly in need of repair.
The worsening condition of the Capitol became tragically apparent when the balcony of the third-floor courtroom collapsed in April 1870 during arguments before the Supreme Court of Appeals about a hotly disputed Richmond mayoral election. The floor of the courtroom crashed down into the chamber of the House of Delegates one floor below. More than 60 persons died in what came to be known as the "Capitol Disaster." Despite some calls to raze and replace the damaged Capitol, the legislators approved funds and repaired the building.
The Capitol remained overcrowded and poorly maintained until the General Assembly decided in 1901 to enlarge and modernize the building. Sponsoring a design competition, the General Assembly rejected proposals that would significantly alter the exterior appearance of Jefferson's conception. The design finally chosen acknowledged the primacy of Jefferson's "temple on the hill" by creating new, separate assembly halls for the Senate and the House of Delegates, each flanking Jefferson's Capitol and attached to the Capitol by hyphens. Early in the 1960s the hyphens were widened, yet the original section of the Capitol remains the dominant architectural feature in the composition. |