Tennessee State Capitol

The Tennessee State Capitol sits atop Capitol Hill, the highest point in Downtown Nashville. It is surrounded by a number of state government buildings, including the Tennessee Supreme Court building for the Middle Tennessee Grand Division. Directly south of the capitol is Legislative Plaza, a public plaza located between a number of state office buildings. North of the capitol is Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park, a large public park that traces the state's history and geographic features.

The Tennessee State Capitol is modeled after an Ionic temple, incorporating Greek Revival architecture, and is composed of limestone quarried from nearby. It measures {{cvt|112 by 239|ft|m}}, and is approximately {{cvt|206.6|ft|m}} tall. The north and south porticoes each contain eight Ionic columns, and the east and west porticoes, which do not span the entire length of the structure, contain six. All of the columns are capped by entablatures. On top of the roof is a {{cvt|42|ft|m}} tall round tower, modeled after the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, that sits on a square pedestal-like structure. The tower contains eight Cornithian columns. The tower is topped by a {{cvt|37|ft|m}} tall cupola and finial, which in turn is topped by a flag pole.

The building contains three stories. The first floor contains the office of the Governor and other state officials, including cabinet members. The House and Senate chambers are found on the second floor, as well as a room which housed the Tennessee State Library and Archives until 1953.

When Tennessee was admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796, as the 16th state, Knoxville was its first capital. Over the next thirty years, the seat of government alternated between Kingston, Nashville, Knoxville, and Murfreesboro, before being moved to Nashville in 1826. The 1835 state constitution mandated that the General Assembly choose a permanent capital. In 1843, Nashville was chosen as the capital.{{cite book |last=Langsdon |first=Phillip R. |title=Tennessee: A Political History |date=2000 |publisher=Hillboro Press |location=Franklin, Tennessee |isbn=9781577361251 |url=https://archive.org/details/tennesseepolitic0000lang |page=104 |via=Internet Archive}}

On October 7, 1843, the Tennessee General Assembly declared Nashville as the state's permanent capital, and planning for a statehouse began shortly thereafter. The prominent hill on which the capitol would be constructed became known initially as Cedar Knob, and later Campbell's Hill after Judge G. W. Campbell, who owned it at the time.{{sfn|Hinton|2022|p=27}} It was previously occupied by the Holy Rosary Cathedral, a cathedral which was the first Roman Catholic church in Nashville.{{cite web|url=http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMGGDD_FIRST_Catholic_Church_in_Tennessee_Nashville_Tennessee|title=FIRST - Catholic Church in Tennessee - Nashville, Tennessee - First of its Kind on Waymarking.com|website=Waymarking.com|access-date=18 August 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://tnsjournal.com/capitols-churches/capitols-and-cd-in-nashville/|title=Capitols and churches: Built and buried in Nashville • Tennessee Star Journal|date=22 December 2015|website=Tnsjournal.com|access-date=18 August 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10704c.htm|title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Nashville|website=Newadvent.org|access-date=18 August 2017}} The property had been purchased by the city of Nashville for $30,000, and was conveyed to the state government for $1.{{cite news |last=McGee |first=Nikki |date=May 8, 2021 |title=Little-known facts about the Tennessee State Capitol |url=https://www.wkrn.com/tennessee-225/little-known-facts-about-the-tennessee-state-capitol/ |work=WKRN-TV |location=Nashville |access-date=January 1, 2022}}

File:Capitol. Nashville, Tennessee (5614199400).jpg.]]

The State Capitol was designed by renowned Philadelphia architect William Strickland, who modeled it after a Greek Ionic temple. The prominent lantern structure located above the roof line of the Tennessee state capitol is a design based upon the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens that honors the Greek god Dionysus doing battle with Tyrrhenian pirates.{{cite web|url=http://famouswonders.com/choragic-monument-of-lysicrates/|title=Choragic Monument of Lysicrates|website=famouswonders.com|date=12 June 2013|access-date=18 August 2017}} The cornerstone of the Tennessee state capitol was itself laid on July 4, 1845 and the building was completed fourteen years later in 1859.{{cite book|title=The Tennessee State Capitol: A Self-Guided Walking Tour|publisher=Tennessee State Museum|year=2009}} Its final cost was approximately $900,000 ({{Inflation|index=US|value=900,000|start_year=1859|fmt=eq|r=-3}}).{{cite news |last=Kerr |first=Gail |date=June 27, 1994 |title=Laying out a new era; Mall heralds revitalized city |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91586341/laying-out-a-new-era/ |pages=1A, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/91586353/malls-cornerstone-celebration-signals/ 2A] |work=The Tennessean |location=Nashville |access-date=January 1, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}}

File:View from Capitol. Nashville, Tennessee (5614200862).jpg

The American Society of Civil Engineers has designated the building as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in recognition of its innovative construction, which made unusually extensive use of stone and was an early example of the use of structural iron. Both the interior and exterior are built with limestone from a quarry about {{convert|1|mi|km|adj=on}} from the site. Some interior columns were built from single pieces of stone, requiring massive wooden derricks to hoist them into place. Wrought iron, instead of wood, was used for the roof trusses to reduce the building's vulnerability to fire.{{cite web |url=https://www.asce.org/about-civil-engineering/history-and-heritage/historic-landmarks/tennessee-state-capitol |title=Tennessee State Capitol |author= |website=American Society of Civil Engineers |access-date=January 29, 2022}}

{{Css Image Crop|Image = CSA-T67-$20-1864.jpg|bSize = 250|cWidth = 250|cHeight = 113|oTop = 2|oLeft = 0|Location = right|Description=Tennessee State Capitol depicted on an 1864 Confederate $20 banknote}}

Commercial, convict, and slave labor were used in the project. Fifteen enslaved Black men worked on carving the Capitol's limestone cellar from 1845 to 1847; Nashville stonemason A.G. Payne was paid $18 a month for their labor. It is believed to be "the most significant project where the [Tennessee] state government rented slave labor".{{Cite journal| issn = 1555-788X| volume = 4| last = Iv| first = Thomas Joseph Broderick| title = They Moved the Earth: The Slaves Who Built the Tennessee State Capitol| journal = Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal| access-date = 2015-02-23| date = 2008-06-03| url = http://ejournals.library.vanderbilt.edu/ojs/index.php/vurj/article/view/2779}}

Strickland died five years before the building's completion and was entombed in its northeast wall. His son, F. W. Strickland, supervised completion of the structure. William Strickland also designed the St. Mary's Cathedral (located along the base of the capitol hill), as well as Downtown Presbyterian church located just a few blocks away from the state capitol.

File:The_Tennessee_State_Capitol_building_in_Nashville.jpg

Samuel Dold Morgan (1798–1880), chairman of the State Building Commission overseeing the construction of the Tennessee State Capitol, is entombed in the southeast corner near the south entrance.

Monuments on the Capitol grounds include statues of two of the three Tennessee residents who served as President of the United States: Andrew Jackson is represented by Andrew Jackson by Clark Mills, and Andrew Johnson by a statue by sculptor Jim Gray. The second President from Tennessee, James K. Polk, is buried in a tomb on the grounds, together with his wife, Sarah Childress Polk.{{cite news |url=https://www.yahoo.com/news/plan-dig-president-polks-body-again-stirs-trouble-211555976.html |title=Plan to dig up President Polk's body – again – stirs trouble |first=Sheila |last=Burke |publisher=Yahoo |agency=Associated Press |date=March 24, 2017 |access-date=March 26, 2017 }}[http://www.cbsnews.com/news/president-james-k-polk-resolution-to-move-body-approved/ Resolution to move former President James K. Polk's body approved - CBS News] Other monuments on the grounds include the Sgt. Alvin C. York Memorial by Felix de Weldon, the Tennessee Holocaust Commission Memorial, the Sam Davis Memorial at the southwest corner of the Capitol grounds, and the Memorial to Africans during the Middle Passage at the southwest corner of Capitol grounds. The Charles Warterfield Reliquary is a group of broken limestone columns and fragments removed and saved from the State Capitol during the mid-1950s restoration, located near the northern belvedere on Capitol Drive. In 1957, the Capitol building was struck by an F2 tornado.

On May 30, 2020, the Sen. Edward Ward Carmack Memorial located above the Motlow Tunnel near the south entrance was toppled by protestors during a demonstration in response to the police murder of George Floyd.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/toppled-statue-just-some-of-damage-at-tennessee-capitol-after-floyd-protests/|title=Toppled statue just some of damage at Tennessee capitol after Floyd protests|date=June 2020}} During the Nashville Autonomous Zone the area near where the statue stood has been unofficially claimed by protesters as "Ida B. Wells Plaza", after the anti-lynching advocate whose death had been advocated by Carmack.

The building housed a bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest between 1978 and 2021. This bust resulted from legislation introduced by Democratic state senator and Sons of Confederate Veterans member Douglas Henry in 1973, and its presence was controversial since its dedication.{{cite news|last1=Ebert|first1=Joel|title=Nathan Bedford Forrest bust at the Tennessee Capitol: What you need to know|url=http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2017/08/18/nathan-bedford-forrest-bust-tennessee-capitol-what-you-need-know/578112001/|access-date=September 5, 2017|work=The Tennessean|date=August 18, 2017}} Legislation was proposed in 2017 towards moving it to the Tennessee State Museum.{{cite news|url=https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2017/12/15/bill-filed-relocate-nathan-bedford-forrest-bust-state-capitol-tennessee-state-museum/953486001/ |title=Bill filed to relocate Nathan Bedford Forrest bust from state capitol to Tennessee State Museum |author=Natalie Allison |author2=Dave Boucher |publisher=The Tennessean |date=December 15, 2017}} The Tennessee Historical Commission voted 25-1 on March 9, 2021, to move the bust to a museum as soon as possible.{{cite news |last1=Falconer |first1=Rebecca |title=Tennessee to remove monument of KKK leader from state Capitol |url=https://www.yahoo.com/news/tennessee-remove-monument-kkk-leader-015757207.html |access-date=March 10, 2021 |work=news.yahoo.com |publisher=Axios |date=March 9, 2021 |archive-date=March 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310042643/https://www.yahoo.com/news/tennessee-remove-monument-kkk-leader-015757207.html |url-status=dead }} The bust was removed on July 23, 2021, and was relocated to the Tennessee State Museum three days later.{{cite news |last1=Allison |first1=Natalie |title=The bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest is out of the Tennessee Capitol. Here's how it happened |url=https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2021/07/23/tennessees-nathan-bedford-forrest-bust-has-been-moved-museum/8064468002/ |access-date=23 July 2021 |work=Tennessean |date=23 July 2021}}

File:Tennessee State Capitol Nighttime.jpg|Night time view of the Capitol

File:Andrew Jackson Statue Nashville.jpg|Andrew Jackson Statue located on the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol

File:James Polk Grave.jpg|Tomb of James K. Polk located on the grounds of the Tennessee State Capitol

File:Tennessee Senate 2022l.jpg|Senate chamber in 2022

File:Tennessee House of Representatives 2022f.jpg|House chamber in 2022

File:Tennessee Old Supreme Court Chamber 2022b.jpg|Old Supreme Court Chamber in 2022

File:Tennessee Capitol Library 2022a.jpg|Library in 2022

File:Tennessee State Capitol second floor 2022a.jpg|Second floor corridor in 2022

• List of Tennessee General Assemblies
• List of National Historic Landmarks in Tennessee
• List of burial places of presidents and vice presidents of the United States
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Davidson County, Tennessee

• {{cite book |last=Hinton |first=Kem |author-link= |date=December 31, 2022 |title=Tennessee's Bicentennial Mall |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TtFnzwEACAAJ |location=Franklin, Tennessee |publisher=Grandin Hood Publishers |isbn=978-1733930499 |via=Google Books}}
• {{cite book |last=Dardis |first=George |author-link= |date=1854 |title=Description of the State Capitol of Tennessee |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cYhjM-oEf28C |location=Nashville |publisher=B. R. M'Kennie & Company |isbn= |via=Google Books}}

{{Reflist}}

{{commons category|Tennessee State Capitol}}

• [http://tnmuseum.org/exhibitions/capitol.htm Tennessee State Museum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100115045348/http://www.tnmuseum.org/exhibitions/capitol.htm |date=January 15, 2010 }} - State Capitol information
• [http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/ Tennessee Legislature Website]
• [http://vimeo.com/69473275 Documentary: Tennessee State Capitol - Grounded in Tradition]

{{Nashville, Tennessee}}

{{US State Capitols}}

{{James K. Polk}}

Category:Government buildings completed in 1859

Category:State capitols in the United States

Category:Government of Tennessee

Category:National Historic Landmarks in Tennessee

Category:Buildings and structures in Nashville, Tennessee

Category:Greek Revival architecture in Tennessee

Category:Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks

Category:Government buildings in Tennessee

Category:Tourist attractions in Nashville, Tennessee

Category:Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee

Category:National Register of Historic Places in Nashville, Tennessee

Category:James K. Polk

Category:Statues of Andrew Jackson

Category:Tombs of presidents of the United States