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. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

. The building is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

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 whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

, 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, having been sworn in on his deathbed a day after being shot by an assassin. Goebel i ...

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 th ...

chose Frankfort (rather than Lexington or

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

) 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 and included many classical French interior designs. The staircases, for example, are replicas of those of the

Opéra Garnier The (, Garnier Palace), also known as (, Garnier Opera), is a historic 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 1861 to 1875 at ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. 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 an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloids (su ...

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

, which was donated in 1912. Statues of

Henry Clay Henry Clay (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American lawyer 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 seventh Spea ...

and Ephraim McDowell 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 in the U.S. Capitol 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 only President of the Confederate States of America, president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the Unite ...

, president of the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), also known as the Confederate States (C.S.), the Confederacy, or Dixieland, was an List of historical unrecognized states and dependencies, unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United State ...

, 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 Kentucky General Assembly voted to fund a bronze statue of

Alben Barkley Alben William Barkley (; November 24, 1877 – April 30, 1956) was the 35th vice president of the United States serving from 1949 to 1953 under President Harry S. Truman. In 1905, he was elected to local offices and in 1912 as a U.S. rep ...

, former

Vice President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest ranking office in the Executive branch of the United States government, executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks f ...

, 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 serving as the 63rd governor of Kentucky since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 50th attorney gen ...

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 The Jefferson Davis Monument State Historic Site is a Kentucky state park commemorating the birthplace of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederate States of America, in Fairview, Kentucky. The site's focal point is a concrete obelisk. ...

situated in Fairview, Kentucky, the birthplace of Davis. In November 2022, a bronze statue of Nettie Depp by Amanda Matthews, 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. The_Kentucky_State_Capitol_Building

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 statues line the walls of the rotunda: bronze statues of

, Vice President

, and Ephraim McDowell. 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 ...

, 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, wife of Daniel Boone, 1845 *

Daniel Boone Daniel Boone (, 1734September 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 beyo ...

, explorer, 1845 * Joseph Clay Stiles Blackburn, United States Senator, 1918 * Augustus Owsley Stanley, Governor, 1958 * Tom Garrett, state senator, 1979 * Col. Harland Sanders, founder of

Kentucky Fried Chicken KFC Corporation, doing business as KFC (an abbreviation of Kentucky Fried Chicken), is an American fast food restaurant chain specializing in fried chicken and chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's s ...

, 1980 * A.B. "Happy" Chandler, Governor and United States Senator, 1991 * Bert T. Combs, 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 The Legislative Research Commission (LRC) is an agency of Kentucky state government that supports the state legislature, the Kentucky General Assembly. Duties Per the Kentucky Constitution, the General Assembly may only meet for 60 days in eve ...

, 1996 * Mary Louise Foust, 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, Governor, 2004 * William E. McAnulty Jr., Justice on the Kentucky Supreme Court, 2008 * Mike Haydon, Governor's Chief of Staff, 2012 * Wendell Ford, Governor and United States Senator, 2015 * Georgia Davis Powers, State Senator, 2016 * John Y. Brown Jr., Governor and business mogul, 2022 * Julian Carroll, Governor, 2023

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"). 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. A metal detector consists of a control box, an adjustable shaft, and ...

. Security for the complex is provided by officers from the Facilities Security Branch of the Kentucky State Police 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:Kentucky Supreme Court Chamber.jpg, Supreme Court Chamber 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:KY Capitol Library.JPG, Kentucky Capitol Law Library 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 File:John Sherman Cooper bust.jpg, A bust of Kentucky Senator John Sherman Cooper, located in the Kentucky State Capitol File:Lamp - Kentucky State Capitol - DSC09249.JPG, Lamp - Kentucky State Capitol File:President William H. Taft addressing crowd at Kentucky State Capitol Building Rotunda.jpg, President William H. Taft addressing crowd at Kentucky State Capitol Building Rotunda File:Kentucky State Capitol - 9-3-23.jpg, The Kentucky State Capitol on September 3, 2023.

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 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 Beaux-Arts architecture in Kentucky Buildings and structures in Frankfort, Kentucky Central Frankfort Historic District