04/06/2008
BY KEITH EDWARDS
Staff Writer
MONTPELIER, Vt. -- The Vermont Statehouse is made mostly of granite quarried from nearby Barre, but the building's well-preserved condition today is due to Vermonters' native frugality as much as their native stone.
That thriftiness extends all the way to the very peak of the place, to a statue of Ceres, the Goddess of Agriculture. The original was carved by renowned Vermont sculptor Larkin Mead, but that wooden work had deteriorated by 1938.
Then-Sergeant-at-Arms Dwight Dwinell, a lifelong whittler in his 80s, stepped forward.
"Rather than replace it with an actual work of art, he carved the head, and the janitors did the body out of a huge piece of Ponderosa pine," said David Schutz, state curator and a leader, with the nonprofit Friends of the Vermont Statehouse, of efforts to restore the historic building in several phases through the 1980s and '90s.
"Fortunately, it's up high enough (more than 150 feet) no one can see it too closely. I guess it's appropriate. It's folk art. And Vermont is known for its folk art."
Frugality in years past also resulted in much of the statehouse being preserved today in its original condition, and with many original furnishings.
Take, for example the ornate Representatives Hall, home to the 150-member House of Representatives in the center of the building, which features all original furnishings and an elaborate, original, bronze and gilt gas chandelier, since converted to electricity.
"Every piece of furniture goes back to 1859," Schutz said. "And the original gaslights, in Vermont's case, due to frugality, were changed from gas to electricity, and we're very grateful for it."
The dome atop the statehouse is now gilded in 24-carat gold. But before 1907, it was originally sheathed in copper and painted red.
Actually, the truly "original" Vermont Statehouse has been replaced twice, so the current edition is the third, on roughly the same parcel of Montpelier turf.
A TALE OF THREE STATEHOUSES
Before that first statehouse was even built, between 1791 when Vermont became the 14th state to join the Union, until 1805, Vermont didn't have a statehouse or even a capital. The state's fledging legislature moved around, meeting in at least 14 different towns.
Despite stiff competition from larger towns, Montpelier was chosen as the permanent seat of state government in 1805. That was in large part because "it's one of the few places where you can be centrally located in Vermont while not also being on top of a mountain," Schutz said.
The citizens of Montpelier agreed to pay for the building, which cost about $8,000 to build on a lot next to the current site, a lot that is now home to the Vermont Supreme Court. It was a simple, three-story wooden building, with only one legislative chamber because, Schutz noted, Vermont was a unicameral form of legislature then and thus only had one body of representatives.
Eventually, a state senate was added and by the 1830s officials decided the original statehouse should be replaced with a more substantial building.
In 1832, Montpelier residents agreed to match the state's $15,000 contribution to build a new statehouse, though the building ultimately cost $132,000.
The second statehouse was designed by Ammi B Young, who also designed the U.S. Treasury Building in Washington, D.C., in the Greek Revival style. It was built with granite from nearby Barre.
Just 19 years later, the columns and portico were about the only things left standing after a January 1857 fire.
The current statehouse, built in the Renaissance style, was completed in 1859 on the same site, at a cost of $150,000.
VERMONT ICONS
Among the first sites visitors see approaching the statehouse are a statue of Vermont Icon Ethan Allen, portrayed demanding the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga, and a cannon captured from the British in 1777 in the Battle of Bennington.
Allen, considered by many to be a "founding father" of Vermont, was most famous for his role capturing Fort Ticonderoga from the British during the American Revolution, as a leader of Vermont's Green Mountain Boys.
Schutz describes Representatives Hall as the heart of the Statehouse. Joint sessions of the House and Senate are held there. And it is the site of many ceremonies and other special events.
Throughout the Statehouse are numerous portraits, most of former governors.
Vermont's frugal nature shows through here, too. Governors, or their friends, family and other supporters, have to pay for their own portraits. So the size of their portraits varies, depending on their means.
Most are formal portraits, with the governor posing in a suit and tie.
The same can't be said for the portrait of former Gov. Howard Dean, a former presidential candidate and, at 12 years, Vermont's longest-ever serving governor.
Dean is wearing a chamois shirt, khakis, and hiking boots with a canoe in an informal, outdoor setting. The portrait is known locally as "L.L. Dean."
Keith Edwards -- 621-5647
kedwards@centralmaine.com
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