Harrisburg, PA

The current building is the third capitol built in Harrisburg after the previous two were respectively burned down and left unfished. When it was designed in the 1890s the state was seemingly on a mission to design a capitol that was more stately and beautiful than all the other state capitols in existence. Well, Mission Accomplished. 

And I'm not the only one who believes this as then President Theodore Roosevelt, who had attended the building's inauguration, declared it "the handsomest building I ever saw." 

There are 16 beautiful and quite unique murals in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chamber drawn by Violet Oakley¹, that depict the history of the law.   

AAR Most Beautiful Capitol in the U.S.

Endnotes:

¹ After painting numerous murals inside the Pennsylvania Capitol in 1906, Violet Oakley was commissioned by the First Presbyterian Church in Germantown to paint ten murals in the church's parish hall called the “Great Women of the Bible”. After hearing this, I didn't think she could have enough material. I mean after Mary who is left? Well, two of the murals are of trees containing the names of women mentioned in the Old and New Testament, one is about a Samaritan who may or may not have been a prostitute, but was shall we say "loose."  Another is about a woman named Dorcas who was raised from the dead by Peter the Apostle. And another was about a woman who washes Jesus' feet with her hair."    

09.30.2019