Pennsylvania State Capitol Building Designated a National Landmark

Historic Architecture and Modern Architecture.

In the Spring of 2007 the Building Task Force of our Pike County Library unveiled the design they had selected for the new building to be built on land purchased from money left to the library in her will by a local resident, with the stipulation that the building be located inside the Borough of Milford, Pennsylvania. There was an immediate hue and cry: it was widely felt that the library should uphold the architectural style of the community and that the library should erect an “old “ building. I wrote a letter to the editor on this subject and following that the editor asked me to write six articles about Pennsylvania architecture. I decided that I would publish the articles in such order that they would illustrate the history of the rise of modern architecture. The letter and the articles follow.


To the editor;

The responses to the publication of the proposed design for the new Pike County Public Library indicate that the public does not always understand architecture and in specific historic architecture.

To be considered historic architecture an entity must be innovative in its design and structure. A building “…in the style of…” in which there is reference to an historical period is not historic architecture per se. A building in the style of the Victorian period is Period architecture, as is Georgian and Colonial. If a building was the setting for an historic event it is an historic site. By definition there is no historic architecture in Milford. There is in fact only one example of historic architecture in Pike County and that is the Roebling Bridge in Lackawaxen, a precursor to Mr. Roebling’s Brooklyn Bridge.

Some writers of Letters to the Editor have suggested that the new library building is not “historic” and that its façade should be, among other styles, colonial, in keeping with the colonial character of Milford village. American colonial architecture is Jacobean (English). There is no example of colonial architecture in Milford. There are no buildings that date from that period (1620-1750). There are one or two buildings in the Federal, or Georgian (also an English), style that might date from that period (1750-1825). There are approximately eight buildings in one or the other of the Victorian styles (1825-1900), most of them in the French or Italian manner, but Milford is not a Victorian village: the majority of buildings in Milford were built after 1900, and most of those after 1950; they are contemporary or adaptations of earlier styles. Milford is best described as a community with an eclectic architectural heritage.

In 1837 Ralph Waldo Emerson addressed Harvard University in a lecture he titled The American Scholar. (This is available at the Pike County Library in The Collected Works of RWE.) In this lecture Emerson called on American scholars and artists to forego European models and to create a new American idiom in their writings and artworks. Sixty years later, inspired by that address, a young Chicago architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, turned away from the classic revival (European) styles and altered the course of world architecture by creating an American architecture, an architecture that referenced the land and the energy of its people. His work greatly influenced early twentieth century Europeans; it was seminal in the creation of Germany’s Bauhaus which lead to the International Style and Modern Architecture. American architects H.H. Richardson and Louis Sullivan influenced Wright and he in turn greatly influenced Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and I. M. Pei. Modern Architecture is American Architecture. It is completely appropriate that the new Pike County Library will be in the Modern (American) style.

Architecture is something more than post and beam construction with a historically reminiscent façade, it is an intellectual discipline in which three components, scale, geometry, and proportion, are employed to define a space in harmony with a specific environment. The first consideration for any new structure should be the building’s use, its function. The site must be taken into consideration. On seeing the new library design, I was pleasantly stunned to see that the site has been taken into consideration, that the structure will have a beautiful interplay between volumes and voids, and that reference will be made to local materials and textures. I love Emerson and I love Frank Lloyd Wright: it is so thrilling to see their works recognized on the local level. My compliments to the board for their “Scholarly” and “Wright” decision: it honors the American experience.

With appreciation…



Pennsylvania State Capitol Building Designated A National Historic Landmark.
An Architectural Appreciation


At the dedication ceremonies for the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building in 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt stated that the building was “the handsomest building in the United States.” Very likely what was true then is still true today. Recently it has been restored for its centennial: it defines ‘sumptuous’. So unique is this building that it has just received National Historic Landmark Status. Only five other United States capitol buildings have received that designation. Landmark status is distinct from Historic status; it denotes a building with irreplaceable national importance. Only three per cent of the buildings on the National Registry of Historic Places have Landmark status.

The building is faced with Vermont granite. The decorative style is Beaux Arts Classic Revival with an emphasis on the Italian. The dome is copied from the design by Michelangelo for St. Peter’s Basilica in The Vatican.

Upon entering the Rotunda one faces a white Carrara marble staircase inspired by that in the Paris Opera. The open dome soars 272 feet overhead; the 48 porthole windows fill the interior space with light. The walls are white marble with gold leaf trim. But the floor is terracotta tile with 377 mosaic insets in the Arts and Crafts style depicting the history of the state. It is the juxtaposition of these disparate elements that establishes the character of the building and explains its Landmark status: the style of the building is the Arts and Crafts philosophy but on a very grand scale. The architect, Joseph Huston, wanted to create a building that would reflect the achievements of the people of the state as interpreted by Pennsylvania artists. Despite its familiar silhouette, there is no other building like this one.

The tile floor was designed and made by Henry Mercer of the Moravian Tile Works. Mr. Mercer is also known for his collection of early American tools displayed in his home museum in Doylestown. Mercer contributed work to three National Landmark buildings, his museum included.

The building is noted for its murals. Edwin Austin Abbey was commissioned to do those for the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court Chambers, and the Rotunda. But after completing those for the Rotunda and two for the House Chamber, he died. Abbey was a noted painter in the pre-Raphaelite style.

Huston wanted to include a woman in the building’s works and commissioned Violet Oakley to do sixteen murals in the Governor’s office. Prior to that no woman had ever been given such a large commission. Violet Oakley was only 28 and was just establishing her reputation. Upon completion, her work, which took five years, met with such approval that, following Abbey’s death, she was given the balance of his commission. It took her another nineteen years to complete this work. In all she created 43 murals for the building.

Violet Oakley also worked in the pre-Raphaelite style. She was trained at the Philadelphia Academy of Arts and studied privately with the illustrator Howard Pyle. It was he who encouraged her to work on a larger format and to consider becoming a muralist.

William Brantley Van Ingen painted the murals in the House Hallway leading off the Rotunda. But his greater contribution to the building is the twenty-four stained glass windows in the Senate and House chambers. Trained as a muralist Van Ingen became fascinated with stained glass and studied with John La Farge, the man who revived stained glass as an art form in the nineteenth century. Van Ingen was employed by Tiffany Studios. His work in this building reflects the excellence of the work of both those artists.

On each side of the stairway leading into the building is a sculptural grouping with a total of 27 nude figures, each eight feet high. George Gray Barnard, a noted sculptor of his day, was the artist. He was trained at the Chicago Art Institute and worked in the nineteenth century academic style. In addition to his work he was an avid collector of Medieval artworks and amassed a collection so large he had to erect a building on Manhattan’s upper West side to house it. After his death it was purchased by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and it became the core of the Cloisters, the medieval art collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Each of the chambers in the building is in classic revival style but with a different emphasis. The Senate Chamber is French. The walls are clad in deep green Connamara Marble. Pilasters and decorative motifs throughout the room are gold leafed.
The House Chamber is decorated in the Italian Renaissance style. The marble here was quarried in the Pyrenees. This is the only building in the Western hemisphere to use that material.

Especially noteworthy are the chandeliers in the House and the Senate. They have a different design in each chamber but in both they are gilt metal armatures with a profusion of both frosted and cut glass globes. Those in the House weigh four and one- half tons each, and those in the Senate two tons each. Suspended from the ceilings, and despite their great weight, they seem to hover in the air. Their massiveness emphasizes the scale of these chambers.

The Supreme Court, at the center back of the building, is English. It has a lower ceiling and a more intimate feel than the other two rooms. In addition there are caucus rooms for the House and Senate and the Governor’s office and reception room.

Classic Revival design and decoration was a common motif in American public buildings of that time. What sets this building above the others is the excellence of the designs and the materials, and the achievements of these artists. But whatever a building’s style and design nothing better gives a building its sense of character than the architect’s love and enthusiasm for his art form. This building is exuberant.

Joseph Huston was the son of a Pennsylvania carpenter. He left school at the age of thirteen and apprenticed to a sign painter. Later, working for an architectural firm, he realized that he had a love of architecture. He studied Latin, Greek, and mathematics and applied for and was accepted for study at Princeton. Later he toured Europe and was very taken with Italian Renaissance art and architecture. After opening his own firm in Philadelphia he designed many private residences.

When the competition for the Capitol project was announced the architectural fraternity boycotted it. (That is another story.) Huston was denounced when he accepted the commission. While the work was in progress he was criticized on a regular basis. When the building was completed, he was charged with having taken bribes from the building contractors. He was tried and found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison. After serving six months he was released and he resumed his architectural practice but never again with commissions or success to equal this. His one masterpiece is the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building, a National Landmark.
Published in The Pike County Dispatch, April 12, 2007.