Building Access update
COVID-19 Access and Procedures
Given the upcoming summer and low COVID-19 community levels in Albany, effective Tuesday, July 5, 2022, visitors will no longer be required to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test or vaccination to enter the Capitol and Legislative Office Building.
This change was made in consultation with the New York State Legislature and the New York State Department of Health. Capitol access will be open on State Street, Washington Avenue, and the Empire State Plaza concourse. Visitors are required to pass through metal detectors and have bags scanned through an x-ray machine.
This change was made in consultation with the New York State Legislature and the New York State Department of Health. Capitol access will be open on State Street, Washington Avenue, and the Empire State Plaza concourse. Visitors are required to pass through metal detectors and have bags scanned through an x-ray machine.
Welcome
Hall of Governors
In this gallery, we commemorate New York’s past in the very building where today’s leaders work to build New York’s future.
Over the past two and a half centuries, 56 individuals have served as governor of New York State. Most are memorialized here with official portraits painted by leading artists of their day from life sittings during or after their service here in the Capitol. Like the leaders they depict, the portraits are an important part of our state’s history.
Many of the governors portrayed here also served as United States congressmen, cabinet members, Supreme Court justices and vice presidents, and four of them were elected president of the United States. However, they are recalled here for the leadership they provided to the Empire State.
For more than 100 years, governors of New York State have worked in this hallway. These paintings will inspire visitors as well as our future leaders, who will someday be part of New York’s magnificent history.
Note: There are no portraits of 8th governor, Nathaniel Pitcher, or 54th governor, Eliot Spitzer.