Ashley Fetner Fine Art Photography

Entering the Kentucky State Capitol Building, I felt as if I were in an art museum instead of a state capitol!  The interior is composed of white Georgia marble, grey Tennessee marble and dark green Italian marble. The corridors have thirty-six grand columns of Vermont granite and art glass skylights.

Kay

The State Capitol of Kentucky is located in Frankfort and is the fourth permanent building constructed since Kentucky Statehood in 1792.  The name Kentucky comes from the Iroquoian word “Kentake” which means “meadow land”. Kentucky is one of the four Commonwealth States along with Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia. A Commonwealth State is one where the power is held by the people but in present times it carries a traditional meaning not a legal one.  Governor J.C.W. Beckman promoted the building of a new capitol since the Old Statehouse was becoming too small to accommodate the growing government. Construction took about five years. The ground breaking was in 1904 and on June 16, 1906 the cornerstone of the capitol was laid with more than twenty thousand people in attendance.  The exterior of the Capitol is faced with Indiana limestone and Vermont granite.  The front portico was designed by Charles Henry Niehaus and carved by Peter Rossack, an Australian sculptor.  The symbolic figures on the front represent Kentucky, with the central female figure representing Progress, History, and Plenty.  The attendants around her represent Law, Art and Labor.  Above the columns, carved into the pediment, is the word “Kentvcky” using the letter “v” instead of the letter “u”.  Due to the fact that many of the designs of the capitol are based on Roman and Greek forms, this was done intentionally to honor the Roman alphabet which does not have the letter”u”. The cost of the New Capital was $1,820,000.00 of which half was paid for with federal funds from the Civil and Spanish-American War claims.  The New State Capital was dedicated on June 2, 1910 during the term of the thirty-sixth governor of Kentucky, Augustus E. Willson.

Kay