Through much of 1999, I visited a fair number of Midwestern cities on editorial business of one kind or another. At some point, that included Columbus, Ohio. I was staying downtown, so during a lull, I popped over to the Ohio Statehouse, which occupies a prominent 10-acre block.
I went in and looked around back then, but thinking about it last month, what I remembered most was the statue of William McKinley near the street. He’s still there, of course.
With verbiage about the immortal memory of President McKinley. That’s what I remembered, how memorials speak to those who already remember, at least among Americans. Later generations do not remember, or much care, except in certain lightning-rod cases. I suppose that isn’t a good thing, but there is the upside of mostly forgetting to hold historical grudges.
The president isn’t alone at that part of the capitol grounds, with some bronze allegories to keep him company.
The back entrance.
We’re used to seeing a dome on such a structure, but state capitols mostly started using that form, patterned after the current shape of the U.S. capitol, after that building took shape in the 1860s. The Ohio Statehouse is older than that.
We arrived late in the morning of March 25, the last day of the trip, after spending the night in suburban Columbus. I would have similar shots of the front, but as innocently spring-like as the pictures seem to be, there was a wicked strong wind blowing. Not terribly cold, just incessant and sometimes so energetic that you could feel yourself tipping one way or another, especially as a gust passed without warning.
Much calmer inside. Under the rotunda.
Nice detail work. I’m impressed by the Spirograph floor. The Spirograph-ish spirit of democracy, maybe.
The design is much less spare than in West Virginia, but not the work of any single designer. It’s the Greek Revival creation of a series of architects beginning in the 1830s and not finished until 1861, just as the nation fell apart.
Perry, hero of Lake Erie, isn’t forgotten. Not at least on the wall.
Nor Vicksburg. Many Ohioans were there.
Nor Cleisthenes, ancient democratic reformer.
I can’t say I’ve ever seen him at a capitol before, and he isn’t known as a native of Ohio, but it’s a good choice. No less than Herodotus called him “the man who introduced the tribes and the democracy” to Athens, “tribes” being the 10 groups organized by residence in Attica, rather than clan or other kinship.
The seal of Ohio in glass.
The visitor entrance, and the information desk, closed gift store and some museum exhibits, are in the basement, itself fairly handsome.
I didn’t know who founded the 4-H Program. Now I do, but sadly I am likely to forget.
I like this a lot: the counties of Ohio, each in a different stone.
Finally, words of wisdom –
Not because Lincoln had a special connection to Ohio or the building. Just, I think, on general principles.
