CAPITOL, UNITED STATES

Washington, D.C., the meeting place of the U.S. Congress and one of the nation's most familiar landmarks, on Capitol Hill, situated where Pennsylvania Avenue intersects Constitution Avenue (on the northwest) and Independence Avenue (on the southeast). To its west lies the Mall, and to its east the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress. Various Congressional (House and Senate) office buildings adjoin it to the north and south. The building also served as the meeting place of the Supreme Court until its own building was completed (in 1935). In 1792 the competition for the design of the Capitol was won by William Thornton, a versatile West Indian doctor who had lived for a time in Philadelphia, but had had no previous architectural experience. The cornerstone was laid by George Washington on September 18, 1793. Because Thornton had no knowledge of building technology, the construction was initially supervised by the runner-up in the competition, Stephen Hallet. Attempting to change too many of Thornton's plans, he was soon succeeded in his post by James Hoban, the architect who had designed the White House. The north wing was finished first, and Congress convened there in November 1800. Benjamin Latrobe was appointed Surveyor of Public Buildings in 1803 by Thomas Jefferson, and among his duties was the completion of the Capitol. He continued to follow Thornton's conception of the exterior closely, but used his own designs for the interior. Perhaps the best-known feature introduced by Latrobe were tobacco-leaf and corn-cob capitals. The south wing was completed by 1807. In 1814 the British set fire to the Capitol, and after the war Latrobe began its reconstruction but resigned his post in 1817. His successor was the distinguished Boston architect Charles Bulfinch, who by 1827 had joined the two wings and built the first dome, again adhering to Thornton's original design. In 1850 a Philadelphia architect, Thomas Ustick Walter, won a congressional competition to expand the wings: the House of Representatives extension was completed by 1857 and two years later the Senate extension was finished. Walter also designed the 287-foot- (87-metre-) high cast-iron dome, which was based on Michelangelo's dome for St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. At Lincoln's insistence, work on the dome was continued during the Civil War as a symbol of national solidarity, and, on Dec. 2, 1863, Thomas Crawford's bronze statue of Freedom (19.5 feet high) was installed on top of the dome's crowning cupola. On the ceiling of the dome is the nation's earliest example of fresco, Constantino Brumidi's allegorical Apotheosis of Washington (1865), wherein gods and goddesses intermingle with Washington and other American heroes. With the exception of such modernization features as the installation of central heating, electricity, elevators, etc., no significant architectural alterations or additions were made until 195960 when the east front was extended 32.5 feet (10 m) under the supervision of J. George Stewart, the architect of the Capitol. The building contains about 540 rooms and stands in a 131-acre (53-hectare) park. Additional reading