Another
day in the general area around Lexington Kentucky… On this morning we decided
to drive over to Frankfort, the capital of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Frankfort has to be one of the most difficult
state capitals for most American’s to identify.
Other similar challenges include Carson City Nevada, Salem Oregon and
Olympia Washington.
Frankfort
was first established in 1786 and it was chosen as the State or Commonwealth’s
capital in 1792. As of the 2020 census,
only 28,602 people live in this city…
FYI, my computer decided to do its own thing here and there so the print tone and size isn't always consistent...plus there are those white 'bars' that inserted themselves below many of the photos. I'm sure that the both problems can be attributed to 'operator errors'!
Our/my
first mistake was parking at the base of the hill occupied by the Capitol
building! The first photo was taken from
the base of the first long set of stairs and the second photo shows just how
much further we had to go before reaching the building…and the stairs in front
of it. We surely got our exercise on
this day.
Kentucky’s
capitol is the fourth iteration of the Commonwealth’s seat of government since
statehood was realized in 1792. It
replaced the previous capitol building, which was constructed in 1830. That earlier structure is still standing in
Frankfort’s downtown area. This building
was dedicated in June of 1910.
The
exterior of Kentucky’s Capitol is faced with Indiana limestone and granite from
Vermont. This beautiful sculptured
pediment over the classical front portico to the building was designed by
Charles Henry Niehaus and was carved by an Australian sculptor named Peter
Rossack. I could not determine why or
how an Australian received this commission.
Allegorical figures comprising the sculpture represent Kentucky (the
central female figure), with Progress, History, Plenty, Law and Labor as her
attendants.
I’m
curious regarding the reason the Niehaus didn’t carve the pediment
himself. After all, he was a renowned
sculptor with many famous works to his credit.
Perhaps he was too busy… At one point Niehaus had 8 sculptures in the
National Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol and he still has 6 in the
hall…more than any other artist.
Speaking
of statues… There are several in the Capitol building. This 14 foot tall statue of Abraham Lincoln
was completed by Adolph Alexander Weisman, a German immigrant, in 1911. It is made with bronze placed on a serpentine
green marble pedestal. President Lincoln
was born near Hodgenville Kentucky in 1809 and he is our best known and most
significant President after George Washington.
President William Howard Taft dedicated this work in November of
1911.
Of
course, President Lincoln is perhaps our best known President. If you would like to peruse a basic history
of his life and accomplishments, just go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln.
Weisman
was an architectural sculptor whose works can be found on the Wisconsin,
Missouri and Louisiana State Capitols as well as at the Jefferson Memorial and
at the U.S. Supreme Court Building. Despite his objections, Weisman is still best
remembered as the designer of the Walking Liberty Half Dollar…now used on the
American Silver Eagle one-ounce coin, the “Mercury” dime and many medals for
the US Armed Services.
This
statue of Henry Clay is yet another work by Charles Henry Niehaus. It was completed in 1930. Niehaus also completed a statue of Ephraim
McDowell, a frontier physician from Kentucky.
Both of these statues are actually painted plaster models of the original
bronze cast statues that represent Kentucky in Statuary Hall in the United
States Capitol Building.
Henry
Clay was Kentucky’s most celebrated 19th century politician and
statesman. His efforts to avoid conflict
between the North and South prior to the American Civil War earned him the
nickname, “The Great Compromiser”. Clay
served in both the US Senate and the House of Representatives. He was the 7th Speaker of the
House and he was the 9th US Secretary of State. Clay was nominated and ran for President of
the US on 3 different occasions. To
learn more about Henry Clay, you can go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Clay.
This
statue was completed in 1963 by Walter Kirtland Hancock. This bronze on a Swiss marble base depicts
Alben Barkley, a former US Senator and member of the US House of
Representatives. Barkley served as a
Senator from Kentucky from 1927 – 1949 and then again from 1955 until 1956,
when he died from a heart attack while giving a speech. He was majority leader of the Senate for 10
years and served as Harry Truman’s Vice President from 1949 – 1953. Truman, who was famously ignored by President
Franklin Roosevelt, included Barkley in cabinet meetings and many other
issues…hence, Alben Barkey is frequently referred to as “the first working
vice-president in United States history. For more information re:
Alben Barkley, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alben_W._Barkley.
The list of sculptures
created by Walter Kirtland Hancock is very extensive… We are personally
familiar with the “Zuni Bird Charmer” at the St. Louis Zoo. (Hancock was born
in St. Louis. A statue of General
Douglas MacArthur occupies a place of honor at the US Military Academy at West
Point New York. On display in Washington
D.C, Hancock also created busts of Hubert Humphrey, Gerald Ford, George H.W.
Bush and Chief Justices Earl Warren and Warren E. Burger. The list of his designs and sculptures is
very extensive. To learn more go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_Hancock.
And who
is this famous Kentuckian? If you can’t
figure it out, you must not like fried chicken!
Harland David Sanders (1890 – 1980) was the founder of the Kentucky
Fried Chicken restaurant chain. His name
and image are still symbols of the company.
Although he is generally referred to as Colonel Sanders, the title is
purely honorific…the highest honor that the State of Kentucky can bestow on
someone.
Harland
Sanders began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in North
Corbin Kentucky during the Great Depression.
The building is now a National Historical Landmark. It was during that period of time that
Senders developed his ‘secret recipe’ and his patented method of cooking
chicken in a pressure fryer.
Despite
completion of Kentucky’s State Capitol in 1910, it really wasn’t
‘finished’. It wasn’t until 2009 that a
project to complete the dome pendentives (inside corners) of the building was
realized. The original design had
included spaces for murals in these 4 corners.
A private donation finally provided the funds needed to complete this
decorative art project. These 4 murals,
oil on canvas with aluminum gilded borders, were completed in 2010. Evergreene Architectual Arts of New York City
created these works of art. To see a
number of examples of the new and restorative works by this company, go to https://evergreene.com/about/awards/.
The first
of these 4 murals is titled “The Bounty of the Land”. Ceres, the classical representative of
agriculture and prosperity, symbolizes the bounty of Kentucky’s agrarian history. It includes a bas relief of 3 Native American
women preparing corn. The border is
comprised of Indian corn, tobacco leaves, hemp rope and sunflowers. To the right of Ceres, a young female jockey
holds the bridle of her thoroughbred horse.
The farmer to Ceres’ left is holding a scythe, a symbol of the
nourishment provided by nature and the reaping of her gifts.
This
second mural is titled “The Power of Commerce”.
Mercury or Hermes, the left hand female figure represents the
allegorical god/goddess of commerce and trade.
The figure on the right is moving a barrel of bourbon, a key industry in
the state. The central figure is thought
of as Vulcan or a blacksmith with his anvil and hammer, honoring the
State’s/Commonwealth’s history of manual labor, craftsmanship and industry. As in each of these murals, subtle but more
distant portions of the total picture, symbolize various related activities.
This
third mural relates to culture and it’s titled “The Fruits of Knowledge”. The woman figure at the right, the ‘Muse of
the Arts’, represents the allegorical figure of music and dance. The bas relief carving at the foot of this
mural highlights Native American Men at the Wickliffe Mounds in Western
Kentucky. The central female figure is
providing instruction on the dulcimer to the young girl sitting in a ladder
back chair, which was handcrafted in Kentucky.
The robed male figure on the left represents a jurist or the moral and
religious elements of faith, law and instruction.
The
fourth corner mural is titled “The Light of Progress”. Athena, the female figure, is the goddess of
civilization, progress and strength. Her
torch and flame stand for knowledge, truth, enlightenment and hope. The bas relief shows Native American men
hunting buffalo. The kneeling male with
the lantern illuminating the darkness is a serious nod to the light provided in
Kentucky’s cities through coal mining.
The man at the right represents progress towards the future with
enlightenment.
In case
you hadn’t guessed, the four of us were on a guided tour with other visitors to
Kentucky’s Capitol building. Our guide
was very knowledgeable and pleasant. At
one point, we stood outside the Governor’s office. Remarkably, given the rabid political
environment we all live in, we noted little or no security during our
tour. Perhaps it was because neither
legislative body was in session at the time…
I’ll end
this post with this impressive long view across one section of Kentucky’s
Capitol building. The architect was a
native of Iowa who worked in Chicago.
Frank Mills Andrews was a very distinguished architect who was a
proponent of the classical French Beaux-Arts Style, hence the many striking
architectural features and rich decorative finishes throughout the interior of
the building.
Much of
the elegance was achieved through the use of white Georgia marble, gray
Tennessee marble and dark green Italian marble.
On axis with the rotunda, the grand corridors feature 36 striking
columns of Vermont granite and beautiful art glass skylights.
I’ll
finish our tour in my next post. Just
click on any of the photos to enlarge them…
Thanks
for stopping by for a visit!
Take
Care, Big Daddy Dave
