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Chapter 4 - The Capital District

New York State Capitol, Albany, NY

                 

All sites in this chapter:
: Lindenwald, Van Buren House, Kinderhook
: Schuyler Mansion, Albany
: New York State Capitol, Albany
: Delaware & Hudson Railroad Co. Building, Albany
: Nott Memorial, Union College, Schenectady
: Yaddo, Saratoga Springs
: Congress Park & Canfield Casino, Saratoga
      Springs
: Lincoln Baths, Saratoga Springs
 

T he booming industrial, commercial, financial, and agricultural growth brought about by the construction of the Erie Canal made New York the Empire State. It became apparent in the middle of the 19th century that the state needed a new capitol building to match its national preëminence. Its construction was a model of government inefficiency. It took 32 years to design and build and involved four separate architectural firms. Construction began in 1869 from plans drawn by architect Thomas Fuller (1823-1898), who chose to symbolize New York’s great success with a structure of Italian Renaissance style. But after 7 years, the exterior walls were completed only to the second floor, and newly elected Lieutenant Governor William Dorsheimer was not satisfied. In 1876, he engaged high-powered new architects, Leopold Eidlitz (1823-1906) and Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886), along with the distinguished landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to design the capitol park. It was Richardson who dominated the final outcome of the grand building, which evolved into his distinguished Romanesque style. But Richardson and Eidlitz were not permitted to finish it either. When Grover Cleveland became governor, he reviewed the slow progress and enormous costs incurred for elaborately carved Scottish sandstone and granite, tons of Siena marble and Mexican onyx, and yards and yards of 23-carat gold leaf. He summarily dismissed Richardson and Eidlitz in 1883 and hired Isaac Perry (1822-1904) to complete the massive project. Despite its varied architectural styles, the capitol’s exterior is definitely impressive, as is the peerless interior. Early critics called Richardson’s Senate Chamber “the most beautiful room in the United States.” Today, as finally completed in 1899, three decades after its initiation, the building has a footprint that is 400 feet by 300 feet, covering four acres with Maine granite walls five feet thick. It is one of the last monumental, all-masonry buildings constructed in America, and it cost twice as much as the nation’s Capitol in Washington, D.C.