The statehouse is one of the most important buildings in Ohio. It is where lawmakers work to make our state a better place and is home to some fascinating stories. We take a look inside at the extravagant building and observe some of the ornate features of the rotunda, the Map Room, the House Chamber, and more.
Class Discussion Questions:
1) Why do you think the Map Room was designed with a map of Ohio on the floor?
2) Why do you think Nathan Kelley wanted to allow the public into the House Chamber?
Read the Script:
[Mary] In Ohio, the Statehouse is where it all goes down. Well, governmentally speaking, that is. The Ohio Statehouse is one massive stone building in Columbus and inside lawmakers keep our state's government going.
The Statehouse is so big that it took more than 20 years to construct. At the time it was second in size only to the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, DC. Both buildings were built in the Greek revival style, a tribute to the Ancient Greeks, who are considered the inventors of democracy.
Nathan Kelley was one of the architects on the job and he thought that such an important building should look impressive on the outside and on the inside, so he added lots of ornate details to the rooms. The Statehouse commissioners in charge of construction thought he was going a little overboard, especially with how expensive his flourishes were. So they fired him.
Nevertheless in 1861, when the building was finally finished, it included some of his special features, like the 120-foot tall rotunda. A rotunda is a round room with a dome ceiling. Inside at the top of the rotunda is the great seal of Ohio.
Other cool rooms in the Statehouse include the map room. The floor here displays the 88 counties in Ohio and is made out of five different types of marble.
Then we have the senate chamber, which has 33 seats, and the house chamber, which has 99 seats. It is here the lawmakers make, well, laws. Let's look a little closer at the house chamber. Pretty fancy, huh? Once again, that's thanks to Nathan Kelley. He wanted to add balconies so the public could feel they were floating above their elected officials. The commissioners weren't convinced that the balcony was strong enough though, so they made Kelley add iron support brackets. Fancy pants Kelley didn't like the look of the iron so he had it painted to look like wood.
Also inside the Statehouse is the governor's office. Does it look a little old? Well that's on purpose. It is kept in the same style as it was from 1861. This is what it looked like when Abraham Lincoln visited. Lincoln came here to talk with Ohio Governor William Dennison Jr. about the impending Civil War. It was on his trip to our Statehouse that Lincoln learned he was confirmed President of the United States. Elections are in November but it took to February to count all the votes back then.
It might look like the Statehouse has just about everything it needs, but it was actually planned without heating. That's a big problem for our cold winters. To solve it, Kelley came up with a creative solution. He put steam pipes in the basement to heat the air there, then he added air ducts to the rooms above. He figured since hot air rises, the rooms above would become toasty from the hot air below. Plus he added ventilation stacks that sucked the unheated air out from the tops of the rooms.
Oddly enough, these air ducts were called air sewers. Doesn't sound pleasant but they did the trick until the bathrooms were installed and got the air sewers mixed with the actual sewers. It caused quite a stink and made many of the lawmakers sick with what they nicknamed Statehouse malaria. It wasn't until 1884 that they solved the mystery stench and cleaned it up.
Luckily, we've been left with a beautiful building where our elected lawmakers can get to work without plugging their noses.