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United States Capitol Historical Society

The Creation of the U.S. Capitol

The Founding Fathers designed the United States Capitol as the permanent home for the House of Representatives and the Senate, two legislative bodies that comprise the Congress of the United States established in Article I of the Constitution. Over the past two centuries, the Capitol has tripled in size. Its architecture and decoration work together to express the major achievements and hopes of the expanding and evolving nation. The current complex building represents the contributions of Presidents, Members of Congress, architects, artists, engineers, craftsmen and thousands of workers who created the American Temple of Liberty.

I . CAPITOLS BEFORE THE CAPITOL: Prior to 1789, the Continental and Confederation Congresses met in borrowed quarters ranging from statehouses to college halls and taverns. After the Constitution’s ratification in 1788, Pierre L’Enfant designed New York City’s Federal Hall with separate House and Senate chambers to accommodate the First Federal Congress.

II . CREATING THE CITY OF WASHINGTON IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: After seven years of debating more than 50 possible locations, Congress passed the Residence Act in 1790. It charged President Washington with readying, by the end of 1800, a “Federal City” on the Potomac River near Georgetown, Maryland. Under Washington’s direction L’Enfant designed a 6,100 acre city within a ten-mile-square Federal District.

III . DESIGNING THE CAPITOL: In 1792 Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson oversaw public competitions to design the President’s House and the Capitol. Fourteen architects and builders submitted designs for the Capitol. The plan finally approved was a compromise between the first and second place winners, William Thornton and Stephen Hallet.

Pennsylvania State House, Philadelphia. Congress met four times at the Pennsylvania State House, beginning in 1775. The Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitutional Convention held there. It was later renamed 'Independence Hall.' Mural by Allyn Cox in the House wing of the U.S. Capitol, photograph courtesy Office of Architect of the Capitol

Nassau Hall, Princeton, New Jersey. During the summer of 1783, Congress met at Nassau Hall at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). Princeton had earlier been the site of one of George Washington's Revolutionary War victories. Mural by Allyn Cox in the House wing of the U.S. Capitol, photograph courtesy Office of Architect of the Capitol

Maryland State House, Annapolis. From Princeton, Congress adjourned to Annapolis, Maryland, where it met in the State House. Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army there in 1783. Mural by Allyn Cox in the House wing of the U.S. Capitol, photograph courtesy Office of Architect of the Capitol

Federal Hall, New York City. The Neoclassical marble facade of New York City's Federal Hall, decorated with emblems from the Great Seal of the United States, featured a balcony where Washington, the hero of the American Revolution, was inaugurated in 1789 as the nation's first president. Mural by Allyn Cox in the House wing of the U.S. Capitol, photograph courtesy Office of Architect of the Capitol

L'Enfant Plan. Pierre L'Enfant's visionary plan for Washington, D.C., was not realized in its entirety for more than a century. It placed the Capitol in the center of four radiating avenues named for three of the states where Congress had met and for Delaware, the first state to ratify the Constitution. Pamela Scott

View of Washington in 1795. When George Jacob Beck painted this view about 1795 looking down the Potomac River from the heights of Georgetown, the Capitol (under construction out of view in the left background) presided over a beautiful pastoral site. Library of Congress

Newspaper announcement of Capitol Design Competition, 1792. The newspaper advertisement for the Capitol competition neither estimated the building's projected cost nor specified its commanding location atop Jenkins Hill, selected by L'Enfant and approved by Washington. Library of Congress

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. President George Washington directed all aspects of the Federal City's design and closely monitored progress on the Capitol until his death on December 14, 1799. His Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, implemented Washington's orders but also influenced Thornton's design for the Capitol dome. Library of Congress

William Thornton. In 1794 Washington appointed English-born physician and amateur architect William Thornton (1759-1828) as one of the three District of Columbia Commissioners with oversight of construction of the Capitol. When the Board of Commissioners was abolished in 1802, President Jefferson appointed him Superintendent of the Patent Office, where he served until his death. The Octagon, the museum of The American Architectural Foundation, Washington, D.C.

Capitol Design by William Thornton. In February 1793, Washington and Jefferson approved William Thornton's design for the Capitol as 'simple, noble, beautiful, excellently distributed, and moderate in size.' Library of Congress

Capitol Interior by Stephen Hallet. Before construction began in 1793, Washington and Jefferson determined that the interior plan by trained architect Stephen Hallet, featuring curved legislative chambers, would be inserted into Thornton's exterior design. Library of Congress

Laying of Capitol Cornerstone, 1793. George Washington, a Past Master of Alexandria, Virginia, Masonic Lodge No. 22, laid the Capitol's cornerstone on September 18, 1793. Mural by Allyn Cox, photograph courtesy Office of Architect of the Capitol

Completed north wing. William Birch's 1803 watercolor depicts the Capitol's completed north wing in which the Senate and House of Representatives of the second session of the Sixth Congress met on November 22, 1800, for a joint session addressed by President John Adams. Library of Congress

NEXT: Temple of Liberty

Where Freedom Speaks: Two Hundred Years of the U.S. Capitol

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