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The Rotunda:
In his design for the Virginia Capitol, Thomas Jefferson included a central conference room for the display of a statue honoring George Washington. It was probably Richmond builder Samuel Dobie who later created a sky lighted dome, hidden beneath the Capitol's gable roof.
French artist Jean-Antoine Houdon's magnificent sculpture, George Washington, has been the centerpiece of this room since its arrival in 1796. It is surrounded by Houdon's 1786 bust of the Marquis de Lafayette and by portrait busts of the seven other Virginia-born U.S. presidents, which were unveiled in 1931. |