The south facade of the Kentucky State Capitol building located in Frankfort, Kentucky

The north facade of the Kentucky State Capitol building located in Frankfort, Kentucky

The Kentucky State Capitol is located in Frankfort and is the house of the three branches (executive, legislative, judicial) of the

state government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

of the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

. The building is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

History

Previous buildings

From 1792 to 1830, two buildings were used as the capitol, both of which burned completely. Retrieved on 2013-08-08 In 1830, another capitol was built and was used until 1910. During a bitterly contested 1899 state governor

election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operat ...

, Democratic Party claimant

William Goebel William Justus Goebel (January 4, 1856 – February 3, 1900) was an American Democratic politician who served as the 34th governor of Kentucky for four days in 1900, having been sworn in on his deathbed a day after being shot by an assassin. ...

was assassinated at the capitol on his way to be inaugurated. The need for a larger building for a growing state government resulted in the replacement of that capitol building, which is now a museum operated by the Kentucky Historical Society.

Current 1910 building

In 1904, the

Kentucky General Assembly The Kentucky General Assembly, also called the Kentucky Legislature, is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It comprises the Kentucky Senate and the Kentucky House of Representatives. The General Assembly meets annually in ...

chose Frankfort (rather than

Lexington Lexington may refer to: Places England * Laxton, Nottinghamshire, formerly Lexington Canada * Lexington, a district in Waterloo, Ontario United States * Lexington, Kentucky, the largest city with this name * Lexington, Massachusetts, the oldes ...

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

) as the location for the state capital and appropriated $1 million for the construction of a permanent state capitol building, to be located in southern Frankfort. The official ground-breaking was August 14, 1905 and construction was completed in 1909 at a cost of $1,180,434.80. The building was dedicated on June 2, 1910.Kentucky State Capitol: The Commonwealth's Edifice
Kentucky Division of Historic Properties. Retrieved 2013-08-08 The capitol was designed by Frank Mills Andrews, a distinguished and award-winning architect. He used the

Beaux-Arts style Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorporat ...

and included many classical

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

interior designs. The staircases, for example, are replicas of those of the

Opéra Garnier The Palais Garnier (, Garnier Palace), also known as Opéra Garnier (, Garnier Opera), is a 1,979-seatBeauvert 1996, p. 102. opera house at the Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was built for the Paris Opera from ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

. Between 1912 and 1963, five statues of historical figures from Kentucky were erected in the rotunda of the capitol. The first was a

bronze statue Bronze is the most popular metal for cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply "a bronze". It can be used for statues, singly or in groups, reliefs, and small statuettes and figurines, as well as bronze elements ...

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...

, which was donated in 1912. Statues of

Henry Clay Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the United States Senate, U.S. Senate and United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives. He was the seven ...

and Dr.

Ephraim McDowell Ephraim McDowell (November 11, 1771 – June 25, 1830) was an American physician and pioneer surgeon. The first person to successfully remove an ovarian tumor, he has been called "the father of ovariotomy" as well as founding father of abdomina ...

were added in 1930. Both of these are the bronzed plaster models used for the bronze statues that represent Kentucky in the

National Statuary Hall The National Statuary Hall is a chamber in the United States Capitol devoted to sculptures of prominent Americans. The hall, also known as the Old Hall of the House, is a large, two-story, semicircular room with a second story gallery along th ...

in the

U.S. Capitol The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill at ...

in Washington, D.C. In 1936, a marble statue of

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as ...

, president of the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

, was placed in the rotunda. The statue of Davis was paid for by both donations and public funds, and erected under the auspices of the

United Daughters of the Confederacy The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, ...

. The Kentucky General Assembly voted to fund a bronze statue of

Alben Barkley Alben William Barkley (; November 24, 1877 – April 30, 1956) was an American lawyer and politician from Kentucky who served in both houses of Congress and as the 35th vice president of the United States from 1949 to 1953 under Presid ...

, former

Vice President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice p ...

, and it was added to the rotunda in 1963. In 2018, a plaque in front of the statue of Jefferson Davis, which referred to Davis as a "patriot" and a "hero", was removed by the Kentucky Historic Properties Commission. On June 4, 2020, Governor

Andy Beshear Andrew Graham Beshear (born November 29, 1977) is an American attorney and politician who has served as the 63rd governor of Kentucky since December 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he is the son of the 61st governor of Kentucky, Steve B ...

stated that he believed the statue of Davis should be removed. On June 13, 2020, the Kentucky Historic Properties Commission voted 11-1 to remove the statue from the Capitol. The Davis statue was to be moved to the Jefferson Davis Monument State Historic Site situated in

Fairview, Kentucky Fairview is a small census-designated place on the boundary between Christian and Todd counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 286, with 186 living in Christian County and 100 livin ...

, the birthplace of Davis. In November 2022, a bronze statue of Nettie Depp by

Amanda Matthews Amanda Matthews (born 1968) is an American sculptor and painter from Louisville, Kentucky, United States, who lives in Lexington, Kentucky. Early life, Education, and Family Amanda Matthews was born in 1968 in Louisville, Kentucky to Jame ...

, Depp's great-great niece, was unveiled inside that capitol. It is the first permanent large-scale monument of a woman inside the state capitol. While Nettie's influence was not statewide, the Historic Properties Advisory Commission considered her a representative example of Kentucky women who achieved professional and personal success. The statue’s unveiling occurred in November 2022.

Layout

The main part of the Capitol has three floors. The first floor contains the offices of the governor (and his or her staff), lieutenant governor, secretary of state, and attorney general. It also features a rotunda with statues of famous Kentuckians and other exhibits, including Kentucky Women Remembered. The rotunda contains four statues of notable historical figures from Kentucky. In the center of the rotunda stands a bronze statue of President

. Three more statures line the walls of the rotunda: bronze statues of

, Vice President

, and Dr.

. The second floor contains the courtroom of the

state Supreme Court In the United States, a state supreme court (known by other names in some states) is the highest court in the state judiciary of a U.S. state. On matters of state law, the judgment of a state supreme court is considered final and binding in b ...

, as well as the chambers of the justices. The state law library is nearby. The State Reception Room is also located on the second floor. The chambers of the House of Representatives and Senate face each other on opposite ends of the third floor. Some high-level legislative offices (such as for the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate) are also located there. The Capitol also has a partial fourth floor which houses the galleries of the House and Senate, as well as a few offices for legislative committee staffers. In addition, there is a partially buried basement level with mostly offices for clerks and maintenance personnel. However, it also contains a small gift shop and lunch counter as well as a tunnel to the neighboring Capitol Annex building. The Annex houses General Assembly committee rooms, General Assembly members offices and a cafeteria.

People who have lain in state in the Rotunda

Rebecca Boone Rebecca Ann Bryan Boone (January 9, 1739 – March 18, 1813) was an American pioneer and the wife of famed frontiersman Daniel Boone. No contemporary portrait of her exists, but people who knew her said that when she met her futur ...

, wife of Daniel Boone, 1845 *

Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (September 26, 1820) was an American pioneer and frontiersman whose exploits made him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. He became famous for his exploration and settlement of Kentucky, which was then beyond the we ...

, explorer, 1845 *

Joseph Clay Stiles Blackburn Joseph Clay Stiles Blackburn (October 1, 1838September 12, 1918) was a Democratic Representative and Senator from Kentucky. Blackburn, a skilled and spirited orator, was also a prominent trial lawyer known for his skill at swaying juries. Biog ...

, United States Senator, 1918 *

Augustus Owsley Stanley Augustus Owsley Stanley I (May 21, 1867 – August 12, 1958) was an American politician from Kentucky. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 38th governor of Kentucky and also represented the state in both the U.S. House of Repre ...

, Governor, 1958 * Tom Garrett, state senator, 1979 * Col. Harland Sanders, founder of

Kentucky Fried Chicken KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is an American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, that specializes in fried chicken. It is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, wit ...

, 1980 * A.B. "Happy" Chandler, Governor and United States Senator, 1991 *

Bert T. Combs Bertram Thomas Combs (August 13, 1911 – December 4, 1991) was an American jurist and politician from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. After serving on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, he was elected the 50th Governor of Kentucky in 1959 on his sec ...

, Governor, 1991 * Thelma Stovall, Lt. Governor, 1994 * Lawrence W. Wetherby, Governor, 1994 * Wilson W. Wyatt, Lt. Governor, 1996 * Vic Hellard Jr., Executive Director of the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission, 1996 *

Mary Louise Foust Mary Louise Foust (October 15, 1909 – December 17, 1999) served three terms as the State auditor, Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts and was the first woman to run for Governor of Kentucky. She was also the first woman in the state to be a ...

, State Auditor, 1999. * Wendell P. Butler, Superintendent of Public Instruction, 2000 * Robert F. Stephens, Chief Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court, 2002 * Kenny Rapier, State Senator, 2002 * Edward T. "Ned" Breathitt, Governor, 2003 *

Louie B. Nunn Louie Broady Nunn (March 8, 1924 – January 29, 2004) was an American politician who served as the 52nd governor of Kentucky. Elected in 1967, he was the only Republican to hold the office between the end of Simeon Willis's term in 1947 and ...

, Governor, 2004 *

William E. McAnulty Jr. William Eugene McAnulty Jr. (October 9, 1947 – August 23, 2007) was an American attorney and judge in Louisville, Kentucky who became the first African American justice on the Kentucky Supreme Court. He served on every level court in Kentucky. ...

, Justice on the Kentucky Supreme Court, 2008 * Mike Haydon, Governor's Chief of Staff, 2012 *

Wendell Ford Wendell Hampton Ford (September 8, 1924 – January 22, 2015) was an American politician from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He served for twenty-four years in the U.S. Senate and was the 53rd Governor of Kentucky. He was the first person to be ...

, Governor and United States Senator, 2015 * Georgia Davis Powers, State Senator, 2016 *

John Y. Brown Jr. John Young Brown Jr. (December 28, 1933 – November 22, 2022) was an American politician, entrepreneur, and businessman from Kentucky. He served as the 55th governor of Kentucky from 1979 to 1983, and built Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) into a ...

, Governor and business mogul, 2022

Security

The Capitol used to be completely open during normal business hours, and local residents often used the marble hallways for exercise (the Frankfort equivalent of "

mall walking Mall walking is a form of exercise in which people walk or jog through the usually long corridors of shopping malls as a substitute for a running track or other walking venue. Many malls open early so that people may mall walk; stores and other ...

"). Currently, anyone without proper state credentials must go through a

metal detector A metal detector is an instrument that detects the nearby presence of metal. Metal detectors are useful for finding metal objects on the surface, underground, and under water. The unit itself, consist of a control box, and an adjustable shaft, ...

. Security for the complex is provided by officers from the Facilities Security Branch of the

Kentucky State Police The Kentucky State Police (KSP) is a department of the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet, and the official State Police force of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, responsible for statewide law enforcement. The department was founded in 194 ...

along with specifically assigned state troopers.

Gallery

File:Kentucky State Capitol Lookout.jpg, Kentucky State Capitol Dome seen from the US 60 lookout File:Kentucky State Capitol Frankfort Cemetery.jpg, Kentucky State Capitol seen from the Daniel Boone grave site File:Frankfory KY Capitol Building at night.JPG, Capitol dome illuminated at night File:Kentucky Capitol Dome 01.JPG, Capitol Dome, seen from outside main entrance File:Plaza, Kentucky State Capitol - DSC09139.JPG, Main Entrance to the Capitol File:Dome - Kentucky State Capitol - DSC09207.JPG, The rotunda File:Kentucky State Capitol - DSC09164.JPG, One of the marble staircases File:Kentucky State Capitol - DSC09202.JPG, The main corridor File:Gov of ky office.jpg, Office of the Governor of Kentucky File:Senate Chamber - Kentucky State Capitol - DSC09173.JPG, Senate Chamber File:House of Representatives Chamber - Kentucky State Capitol -DSC09197.JPG, House of Representatives File:Supreme Court Chamber - Kentucky State Capitol - DSC09183.JPG, Supreme Court Chamber File:State Reception Room - Kentucky State Capitol - DSC09159.JPG, State Reception Room File:Abraham Lincoln by Adolph Alexander Weinman - Kentucky State Capitol - DSC09243.JPG, Statue of Abraham Lincoln File:Henry Clay by Charles Henry Niehaus - Kentucky State Capitol - DSC09232.JPG, Statue of Henry Clay

References

External links

Official website of the Kentucky State Capitol

Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives
Kentucky Historical Society page on the Old State Capitol

Kentucky Secretary of State
{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Frankfort, Kentucky Government of Kentucky State capitols in the United States Government buildings in Kentucky Government buildings with domes Tourist attractions in Franklin County, Kentucky Government buildings completed in 1905 Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky 1905 establishments in Kentucky National Register of Historic Places in Frankfort, Kentucky