New York State Capitol Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids New York State Capitol
The New York State Capitol viewed from the southwest
General information
Architectural style	Romanesque Revival, Neo-Renaissance
Town or city	Albany, New York
Country	United States
Construction started	1867
Completed	1899
Cost	$25 million
Client	State of New York
Design and construction
Architect	Thomas Fuller Leopold Eidlitz Henry Hobson Richardson Isaac G. Perry


New York State Capitol
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
U.S. Historic district Contributing property

Part of	Lafayette Park Historic District (ID78001837)
NRHP reference No.	71000519
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	February 18, 1971
Designated NHL	January 29, 1979
Designated CP	November 15, 1978

The New York State Capitol is a very important building in Albany, the capital city of New York State. It's where the New York state government works. This amazing building is part of the Empire State Plaza complex. It houses the New York State Legislature, which is where lawmakers meet to create laws for the state.

The Capitol was finished in 1899 and cost about $25 million. This made it the most expensive government building of its time! It's recognized as a special historic place. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and became a National Historic Landmark in 1979.

History of the New York State Capitol
The 1911 Fire
Visiting the Capitol
Images for kids
See also

History of the New York State Capitol

The New York State Capitol has a long and interesting past. Before Albany became the official capital in 1797, state lawmakers met in different buildings.

Early Capitol Buildings

The Old State Capitol, used from 1812 to 1879

From 1797 to 1811, the state government met in the Old Albany City Hall. The first official State Capitol building was designed by Philip Hooker. Construction started in 1804 and it opened in 1812. This building was used until 1879, when the current Capitol was ready.

Building the Current Capitol

An early plan for the Capitol by Thomas Fuller

The current Capitol building was constructed between 1867 and 1899. It took 32 years to build! Three different teams of architects worked on its design over the years.

The first architect was Thomas Fuller (1867–1875). He was from England and also designed the Canadian Parliament buildings in Ottawa.
Next came Leopold Eidlitz and Henry Hobson Richardson (1875–1883).
Finally, Isaac G. Perry (1883–1899) completed the project.

The ground floor of the Capitol was built in a style called Classical/Romanesque. Then, Eidlitz and Richardson took over. They designed the next two floors in a Renaissance Classical style. You can see this in the light, open columns on the outside.

Building the Capitol was very expensive. The rising costs caused many arguments among lawmakers. It was hard to get enough money to finish the project. Because of these rising costs, Eidlitz and Richardson were eventually replaced.

Grover Cleveland, who later became president, hired Isaac G. Perry to finish the building. Perry completed the legislative chambers, the fourth floor, and the roof. Much of his work followed Richardson's unique Romanesque style. This style became known as Richardsonian Romanesque. Some say Richardson was inspired by the City Hall in Paris, France. The stone used for the Capitol came from a quarry in Essex County, New York.

The Capitol building in 1919, seen from Madison Avenue

Capitol Design and Features

The Capitol was meant to have a huge dome and tower in the center. However, these were never finished. The building was so heavy that it started to shift downhill! To stop this movement, a large, 166-foot-long staircase was added to the front.

The outside of the Capitol is made of white granite from Hallowell, Maine. Some parts also use Westchester marble. The building is 220 feet tall at its highest point. It's one of the few U.S. state capitols that doesn't have a domed roof. Tunnels connect it to the Empire State Plaza and the Alfred E. Smith Building.

The Capitol's exterior was cleaned and repaired from 2000 to 2014. Many historical details were brought back to their original look. A skylight over the Great Western Staircase was uncovered. The roof tiles were also replaced with new ones from the original company.

The Assembly Chamber was built with the world's largest open arched span. However, this caused problems with sound. Also, the building's shifting foundations made the vaults unstable. A lower ceiling was added to prevent pieces of rock from falling onto the Assembly floor.

The Capitol once had two huge murals by artist William Morris Hunt. These paintings, called The Flight of Night and The Discoverer, were about 45 feet long. They were painted directly on the sandstone walls of the Assembly Chamber. Sadly, they were later covered when the ceiling was lowered. They had also been damaged by moisture.

The Governor's Reception Room has beautiful ceiling murals of battle scenes. These were painted by William de Leftwich Dodge. Outside the Capitol, there is a statue of Civil War General Philip Sheridan. It was designed by John Quincy Adams Ward and Daniel Chester French and finished in 1916.

The 1911 Fire

In the early morning of March 29, 1911, a big fire started in the Assembly library. No one knows for sure what caused it. Some think it was an electrical problem, others a dropped cigar.

Only one person, a night watchman, died in the fire. But it destroyed almost the entire collection of the New York State Library. Many important documents and artifacts from the New York State Museum were also lost. The flames reached 200 feet high at one point! It took 125 firefighters to put out the fire.

The heat from the fire was so strong it twisted metal in a skylight. It also melted parts of the sandstone. The southwest corner of the building was badly damaged. It took three months to clean up the mess and a year to rebuild. The repairs cost about $5 million.

The New York State Capitol Building in 2018

Visiting the Capitol

The New York State Capitol is open to visitors from Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. It is usually closed on weekends and holidays.

You can take official guided tours of the Capitol. These tours start at the Information Desk in the State Street Lobby. There is also a Visitor Center for the Capitol and Empire State Plaza. It's located on the Concourse Level of the Plaza, near the underground entrance to the Capitol.