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 Violet Oakley was subsequently 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”. Prior to my subsequent visit, I was quite concerned that Ms. Oakley did not have enough material, I mean after Mary who is left? Well, she did it, though two of the murals are of trees containing the names of women mentioned in the Old and New Testament. One of the paintings is about a woman who may or may not have been a prostitute, but was shall we say "loose."  And another is about a woman named Dorcas who is raised from the dead by Peter the Apostle.     

09.30.2019