New York State Capitol: Ten Fun Facts

During our 50 Capitols quest, we visited the New York State Capitol in Albany and learned many interesting facts about the building and its history. For example, it took over 32 years to build, but it resulted in an amazing architectural accomplishment. In 1979, the New York State Capitol was declared a National Historic Landmark.

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What you always Wanted to Know about the New York Capitol

Enjoy these fun facts and tidbits about the New York State Capitol. In summary, it was expensive and the Dutch influence can still be felt. The Capitol is one of the more impressive ones we have visited and it looks like a French castle, Versailles comes to mind.

Let’s Start at the very Beginning: Het Stadt Huys

As a person born in The Netherlands, I was happily surprised to find out about the “Stadt Huys”, literally the Dutch word for City Hall. At first, the New York Legislature would meet in the Albany “Stadt Huys”. It was a busy building, hosting state, county and local government, as well as a jail and courts.

In 1797, Albany became the official capital of the state. For a while, the Legislature continued to use city hall, until the first state capitol was opened in 1809. The new dedicated capitol was located atop the State Street hill, directly in front of the current capitol.

Most Expensive Goverment Building Ever!

Construction began in 1867. It was completed in 1899 at a total cost of US$25 million (equivalent to half a billion today). During our tour, the guide told us that it was the most expensive building ever built at that time.

While fact checking, I could not find more than the specifics of it being the most the most expensive government building of its time. Still, it shows that New York state was willing to spend tons of money on their capitol, to the dismay of some of their citizens who considered it “an expensive boondoggle”.

Magnificent Murals

In 1920, New York state wanted to honor its residents who had served in the military. So they commissioned a prominent NYC muralist, William deLeftwich Dodge to create a set of 25 murals to chronicle important events in New York State military history.

Dodge had previously worked on murals in the Library of Congress and in the original NYC Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The murals here chronicle the history of the struggle for domination of the area which is now known as New York.

One of the murals shows the Dutch beating up on the French, including the famous “klompen’ (wooden shoes) which the Dutch guy is wearing.

Cowering on the left, a French woman protects their rooster, while the Dutch woman on the right offers a sword to the fighting Dutchman.

The Phantom of the Capitol

In 1911, a fire broke out in the Capitol, and rapidly spread through the building. The New York State library housed in the building was an easy target for the flames and sadly many priceless manuscripts were destroyed.

Because the fire happened during the night, around 2am, almost nobody was around and the only human casualty was Samuel J. Abbott, a Civil War veteran in his late 70s, who was the Capitol’s night watchman. After the fire, they found his body with his cane and lantern next to him close to an exit door.

Many people believe he never left the building and still haunts it to this day. Watch the New York Capitol Virtual Visit: Hauntings – Fire of 1911 and decide for yourself!

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men…

Unlike most other state houses and capitols, the New York State capitol does not have a dome. (The Alaska Capitol doesn’t have a dome either). Originally, the plans included a dome, but the building got too heavy, and started to slide downhill toward State Street… Oops! Adding a huge stair case to support the front facade stopped the movement.

Over a time span of 32 years, 4 architects worked on this building, each of them incorporating their own vision and ideals. In the end, the result is an eclectic but beautiful mishmash of Romanesque and French Renaissance Classical styles.

On a different note, apart from an absent dome, this capitol is also missing a Liberty Bell Replica which are displayed in most state capitols. Although it is on display in the nearby education building, we were not allowed to get anywhere close to it.

Find out more about State Liberty Bell Replicas.

Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho… Sing Sing Workers

The Capitol used white granite from Maine, red granite from Scotland and Westchester, NY marble. Interesting tidbit is that the NY marble was cut by state prisoners at Sing Sing. Fittingly for this building material, the name Sing Sing is from the Native American words “sinck sinck” which translates to “stone upon stone”.

The Sky Is Falling in the Assembly Chamber

When the American architect Leopold Eidlitz designed the New York State Assembly Chamber, he was dreaming big. A huge Moorish Gothic style room with its 56 feet high vaulted sandstone ceiling made it the widest vaulted structure at that time.

Sadly, his grandiose design didn’t work out so well. Because the stone ceiling developed structural problems, dust and pieces of stone would randomly fall down from the ceiling. When a large piece, the size of a bowling ball, landed close to an assemblyman, they decided to make some changes.

So they created a new ceiling, 4 feet underneath the original ceiling, which covered up the original ceiling murals but made the room a lot safer.

Million Dollar Stair Case by Immigrant Workers Making $ 5 a Day

Another interesting fact about the New York State Capitol is their amazing stair case, also called the “million dollar stair case”. Of course it is hard to imagine that a mere stair case could cost that much, but it turns out, New York managed it.

So why did it take so long to build this stair case? Well, it took them 14 years to construct and more than 500 stone cutters worked on it. For five dollars a day, they worked in uncomfortable positions, carving 77 prominent people into the existing stone wall. Most of these stone cutters were Europeans from England, Scotland and Italy.

As a great example of American stone carving excellence, this staircase contains 444 steps and reaches 119 feet high. The famous people honored include Washington, Lincoln, Grant, Columbus, Shakespeare and Susan B. Anthony.

In fact, it cost even more than a million dollars, but it still is known as the million dollar stair case. No reason to disclose the real cost…

Empire State Plaza Inspired by a Dutch Queen

When we started planning our visit to the New York State Capitol, I discovered it is part of a much bigger complex, the Empire State Plaza. Visible from across the Hudson river, this plaza is a dominant feature of the Albany skyline.

So what is the back story of this plaza? In 1959, when Nelson Rockefeller was Governor, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands visited to celebrate the area’s Dutch history. Back then, the State Capitol was surrounded by the so-called “The Gut” of Albany. Rundown buildings, rampant poverty, Italian and Irish immigrants…

As the story goes, while Rockefeller drove Queen Beatrix through the rundown city neighborhood, he imagined what she might be thinking “Here was a great Dutch city built in the New World and then she comes to look at it, never having seen it before. My God!”

As a result, Rockefeller consulted with the architect Wallace Harrison and during an airplane ride from Albany to New York City, he sketched some ideas which Harrison then revised. The result was the South Mall on 98.5 acres, “the most spectacularly beautiful seat of government in the world” according to Rockefeller.

Indeed, it is big, beautiful and impressive. If you can’t make it in person, you can visit the Empire State Plaza virtually.

In 1982, when Queen Beatrix returned to Albany, she praised its transformation “After so many years, it is exciting to see what tremendous changes have taken place here, in the state capital of New York. Many impressive buildings have sprung up since then, such as the monumental new Mall, of which you are so rightly proud.”

Of course, there was a negative cost in that this plaza displaced many people and destroyed the ethnic neighborhood. Check out their stories in The Neighborhood That Disappeared.

Rickey’s Moving Art

Wandering around the Plaza, we noticed lots of art, including a moving sculpture by George Rickey. 32 feet steel “lines” make up the Y-shape of his Two Lines Oblique. Always fascinating to watch, this kinetic sculpture can swing from 8 to 52 feet in the air.

Starting as a painter, Rickey’s World War II service in the army (designing machine gun turrets for bombers), inspired him to start working on moving sculptures.

Today, Rickey’s sculptures can be seen in major museums in the US and worldwide Europe, Japan, and New Zealand. Locally, we can visit some of his art at Dartmouth College, where George was an artist-in-residence in 1966.

New York State Capitol Facts Conclusion

We hope you learned new fun facts about this capitol and I also hope you will visit it some day and see it all in person. This Capitol won’t disappoint you. We hope you enjoyed this preview.

Have you visited this Capitol? Or any other of the state houses or capitols?

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