(HOST) On a cold night exactly one hundred and fifty years ago, Vermont lost a unique treasure. Ironically however, from that tragic loss came another handsome treasure, which we now have cause to celebrate. Here’s commentator Peter Gilbert.
(GILBERT) At 7:00 p.m. on January 6th, 1857 exactly 150 years ago tomorrow – Vermont’s state capital building burned.
Normally the State House wasn’t used in the winter, but that night it was being warmed in anticipation of a rare off-session meeting. And here’s my favorite part of this story: the man in charge of preparing the building had, it was said, quote, “an economical turn of mind.” End quote. In an effort to heat the building quickly and save wood, he shut the cold air vents that should have flowed into the furnace, then circulated to the rooms above. As a result, the floor above the furnace caught fire. Most of Montpelier rushed to lend a hand, but with no pumps, the best they could do was fill the hall with large chunks of snow from the shoveled sidewalk. They thought they had the fire licked, but alas, it was in the walls and floors, and the building was soon engulfed in flames.
Built of Barre granite with a low, saucer-shaped dome, the building was a masterpiece of the Greek Revival style. It had been designed by Ammi Young, an unknown thirty-two year old architect from Lebanon, New Hampshire who had just moved to Burlington. For him the magnificent building led to a very distinguished career. Unfortunately, all that could be salvaged of the building was the Doric-columned front portico, modeled after the Temple of Theseus in Athens.
The building that burned was actually Vermont’s second state house. The first was a three-story wooden meeting house built in 1808 and located on State Street near where the Supreme Court building now stands. But that first state house soon deteriorated, became too small, and was torn down.
After the fire, it took two and a half years to build our current state house, which was completed in 1859. That means that its 150th anniversary is coming soon; indeed State Curator David Schutz tells me that the anniversary of the fire kicks off a sesquicentennial celebration of our present handsome state house; he and the Friends of the State House will be sponsoring a number of exhibitions and publications.
The capitol building we know today differs from the second state house in a couple of important ways. The dome was made taller, probably to reflect the greater height of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, which was under construction at the same time, having also burned to the ground when the British captured Washington during the War of 1812. The third Vermont State House was also made larger, and its style reflected the Renaissance Revival that was popular a century and a half ago. Indeed, the dome and the roofs were originally painted a dark terra cotta red to suggest Tuscan tile. The dome was not gilded with gold until the early twentieth century.
One interesting similarity: the free-standing steam plant that heats the state office complex in Montpelier, including the State House, today is fueled partially with wood.
Peter Gilbert is executive director of the Vermont Humanities Council.