| Timeline for "A Moving Monument: The West Virginia State Capitol" Confederates attack Fort Sumter. President Abraham Lincoln calls for volunteers to suppress a rebellion. A special Virginia convention votes 88 to 55 to secede from the union. A convention of union supporters meets in Wheeling and agrees to establish a new state if Virginia voters ratify the secession decision. 1861 Virginia voters OK secession. A second convention meets in western Virginia and votes to designate 39 counties as a new state. Voters in the designated counties endorse statehood by an overwhelming vote of 18,408 to 781. A constitution for the new state is finished. The state applies to Congress for admission. After much debate, Congress approves the measure under the condition that the new state must abolish slavery — a practice that fueled the Civil War. Members of Lincoln's Cabinet are divided over accepting West Virginia into the Union. Some protest the whole process is unconstitutional. Lincoln weighs the matter and ultimately signs the bill. West Virginia becomes a state on June 20. 1863 State government sets up the state's first official Capitol building in Wheeling in a modest brick structure built by trustees of the Linsly Institute. Responding to a public outcry that the seat of government should be in a more central location, the Legislature selects Charleston as the state's "permanent" seat of government. The move is far from permanent as the political tug of war continues for years. The steamboat Mountain Boy carries Gov. William E. Stevenson, the state's official papers and other property down the Ohio River to Point Pleasant, and then up the Kanawha to Charleston. 1870 While the first Charleston Capitol is being constructed, state government takes temporary shelter in local banks and St. John's Episcopal Church. 1870 State government moves into the completed new Capitol building in Charleston, a three-story structure designed by an unidentified Cincinnati architect. Wheeling offers to finance a new Capitol building if the Legislature reverses its decision and returns the seat of government there. Lawmakers approve the move — 13 to 11 in the Senate and 38 to 20 in the House of Delegates. 1875 State officials pack their bags and board the steamboat Emma Graham. Traveling to Parkersburg, they transfer to the Chesapeake, which takes them on to Wheeling. The transfer of the state's records and archives is delayed by an unsuccessful court challenge by Charleston. Two barges pushed by the steamer Iron Valley transport records and archives and arrive in Wheeling months later. 1875 While awaiting the construction of the promised new Capitol building in Wheeling, state government again takes up temporary quarters at Linsly Institute. The city presents the state with the new Wheeling Capitol, a massive, three-story structure that cost more than $120,000 to build. The Legislature decides to put the issue of where the capital should be located to a statewide vote. With anti-Wheeling feelings running high, the city is not even placed on the ballot. Voters choose between Clarksburg, Martinsburg and Charleston. Charleston wins the referendum with 41,243 votes. Clarksburg follows with 29,942 votes and Martinsburg, with 8,046. Gov. Henry M. Mathews proclaims state government would return to Charleston. Gov. Willis Wilson and other state officials travel by the steamboat Chesapeake while the steamboat Belle Prince tows a barge loaded with the state's papers and property. State government sets up temporary quarters around town in Charleston while a new building is being completed. Construction is completed on the new Charleston Capitol. The ornate, three-story, Victorian-style structure of brick and stone is built at a cost of $350,000. For the use of its governors, the state purchases a large downtown home near the Capitol that burned in Charleston in 1921. Eight governors occupy the mansion, from William McCorkle in 1893 to Ephraim Morgan in 1925. New quarters are constructed for the governor in another location by the 1920s. A raging fire destroys the Charleston Capitol building. The official cause of the fire is listed as defective electrical wiring, but some suspect arson. 1921 State government takes temporary refuge in various churches and other buildings around Charleston. Gov. John J. Cornwell finds office space in the State Armory, while the Senate holds its regular session at the YMCA and the House of Delegates at the Baptist Temple. 1921 Workers hastily put up a two-story building on Capitol Street for a temporary state government headquarters. Fashioned from wood and wallboard and costing $225,000, it is dubbed the "Pasteboard Capitol." The Legislature creates a Capitol Building Commission and empowers it to select an architect and a "suitable location for a complex of buildings of impressive structure." The commission selects architect Cass Gilbert, a designer of a score of well-known buildings, including the state capitols of Minnesota and Arkansas. 1921 The Legislature enacts a gross sales tax to raise additional revenue to complete the building of the Capitol Complex. Contracts are let for Office Building No. 1, what ultimately would become the West Wing of the new Capitol. The general construction contract is awarded to the New York-headquartered George A. Fuller Co. Ground breaking is held for the beginning of a massive construction project — the building of the present day Capitol on the East End of Charleston. 1924 Construction work begins on the West Wing of the present day Capitol. An army of steelworkers arrives to mold tons of steel, limestone and marble into shape. Cranes dot Charleston's landscape as steel begins to rise from the earth. 1924 Construction work begins on a new Governor's Mansion on Kanawha Boulevard, next to the site of the present day Capitol. The West Wing of the new Capitol is completed at a cost of more than $1.2 million. Permanent quarters are assigned to many state workers for the 84,000 square feet of new floor space. 1925 The new Governor's Mansion — designed by Charleston architect Walter Martens — is completed. Martens conferred with Capitol architect Cass Gilbert on the Georgian Colonial design for the $200,000 project. Construction work begins on the East Wing of the present day Capitol. Space is included in the design for the state Supreme Court, the treasurer's office and a secure area for the state treasury. 1927 History repeats itself when flames consume the "Pasteboard Capitol," the temporary state government headquarters. It marks the second time a blaze has destroyed the home of the Capitol in Charleston. The cause is never determined. The East Wing of the new Capitol is completed and occupied. The project costs more than $1.3 million. Lawmakers enact a special levy with proceeds to pay for construction of the Capitol's main unit. Construction work begins on the main or center unit of the present day Capitol. Plans include a dome and rotunda for the center section. As economic woes with the Depression deepen, Gilbert's plan to gild the dome with gold stirs controversy. He argues gilding is cheaper than using stone and prevails. The main or center unit is completed. The Capitol is dedicated June 20, 1932 — the state's 69th birthday. The main unit costs $4.4 million to construct. West Virginia completes the entire project under budget for a total of about $9.4 million. State Office Building No. 3, more often called the Department of Motor Vehicles Building, opens. Gilbert's son is commissioned to design the additional state office building to fulfill the needs of a growing state government. The West Virginia State Capitol is added to the National Register of Historic Places. The Capitol celebrates its 50th anniversary. 2005 Cass Gilbert's original plans for gilding the dome are realized when the dome is refurbished. Gold leaf is applied to the dome's ribs, tower, lantern, staff and eagle. Blue paint is applied to the flat panels between the ribs. The original gilding had covered the entire dome, which was not up to his standards. The dome's new look is unveiled in a ceremony along with the official release of the West Virginia quarter. The Capitol's chandeliers are taken down and shipped off to a New Hampshire company for cleaning and restoration — the first time since the building was completed in 1932. 2007 The Capitol observes its 75th anniversary. "A Moving Monument: The West Virginia State Capitol," the first documentary ever produced about the history of West Virginia's Capitols, airs on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. |
