Cut & Carved by Hand Constructing the Capitol
Construction methods in the nineteenth century were laborious, especially with the Capitol as it was built with five-feet-thick, load-bearing masonry walls. When work began, electric lighting did not exist, but by the 1880s the Capitol was one of the first public buildings in America to have electricity. The Assembly Chamber had to be substantially rebuilt when structural deficiencies caused its stone ceiling to begin to collapse less than ten years after it was completed. In 1911, the Library and other rooms in the west end of the Capitol were lost in a tragic fire. Over the years innumerable small changes have hidden original ceilings and divided once grand spaces into small offices. Fortunately, these spaces have now been restored and preserved.
Thousands of stones were used to build the Capitol, and they were all cut and carved by hand. At times, hundreds of stone carvers and cutters were employed and paid up to five dollars for a ten-hour day—twice the wage of a common laborer. The majority of the carvers were from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
The exterior of the Capitol is granite, which was quite difficult to carve since it was actually harder than the steel tools the carvers used, but amazingly, they created many beautiful carvings with a high level of detail. The interior Great Western Staircase is an elaborately carved work of art. Corsehill sandstone was imported from Scotland, because it was soft when fresh from the quarry, and very adaptable to fine carving. This was important because of the complexity and variety of the carving; not even the smallest of decorative themes or faces was used twice. All of this work was done by hand. The carvers used mallets and chisels and actually created each carving in place.
The Capitol stone carvers created the seventy-seven famous faces, among them Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass, and Susan B. Anthony, using plaster models that had been made by a sculptor in New York City. There are also many unidentified faces that the carvers used to fill in the ornamentation, some of whom were probably friends and relatives. Smaller, whimsical faces and heads were created by the stone carvers to vary the elaborate foliage, and they can be found everywhere.
A stone cutter working on a carving in the Capitol
A stone carving made of Scotland-imported Corsehill sandstone
The Great Western Staircase
The Assembly Staircase's restored laylight
A stone carving made in Scotland-imported Corsehill sandstone
Timeline History of the New York State Capitol
A preeminent example of late nineteenth-century architecture, the Capitol was designed to be a monument to democracy and a source of pride for all New Yorkers. It replaced a modest 1809 state house which stood near the Eastern approach to today’s Capitol.
Planning for the building began shortly after the end of the Civil War. Five architects worked on its design. Its construction lasted more than a quarter of a century, until 1899, when Governor Theodore Roosevelt declared the building complete.
Timeline
1781: Legislature met in Albany’s Stadt Huis (Town Hall) for the first time.
1809: First Capitol, located just east of present building, completed to designs of architect Philip Hooker.
1865: Legislative act authorizing construction of new Capitol passed.
1867: Groundbreaking for new Capitol building.
1868: Thomas Fuller appointed Architect of the Capitol
1871: Cornerstone of present Capitol laid.
1876: With exterior walls complete only to second story, Thomas Fuller replaced as architect by Leopold Eidlitz and H.H. Richardson. Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted also hired.
1879: Assembly met in the chamber on the third floor for the first time.
1881: Executive and Senate Chambers occupied.
1883: Isaac G. Perry became Commissioner of the Capitol, replacing Eidlitz, Richardson, and Olmsted.
1888: Stone vaulted ceiling of Assembly Chamber replaced after it failed structurally.
1897: Great Western Staircase completed with installation of a skylight.
1899: Governor Theodore Roosevelt declared Capitol complete.
1911: Fire destroyed much of western side of Capitol.
1917: Court of Appeals moved out of the Capitol.
1977: Restoration of the Senate Chamber begun.
1979: Capitol declared a National Historic Landmark.
1997: Restoration of the William deLeftwich Dodge murals complete.
1998: Assembly Chamber and Gallery accessibility and restoration program initiated.
2000: Restoration and ADA compliance begun on the Assembly Chamber and related spaces.
2002: Restoration of the skylight and laylight over the Great Western Staircase complete.
2006: Conservation cleaning of the Great Western Staircase’s masonry and ornamental light fixtures complete.
2012: Restoration of the skylight and laylight over the Assembly Staircase complete. Hall of Governors opens.
2013: Restoration of the skylight and laylight over the Senate Staircase complete, marking the end of the overall Capitol Restoration Project. Hall of New York opens.