VA State House - Richmond
I drove into the Virginia capital on Sunday morning. The streets were fairly empty and I found parking on the street two blocks from the capital. Walking up the hill the, The Commonwealth Hotel was on my right. At first I thought it was an art gallery. The entrance to the hotel had many art pieces hanging on the walls. In the breakfast / bar area, a wall was covered with black and white photos of the area. The photos were technically very good.
The Virginia Capital
Once again, the capital building was being renovated and it was difficult to capture photos of the building on the outside. I walked around the capital getting photos of statues, gardens and buildings around the capital. I also took a tour of the building inside.
The Capital Grounds
Around the capital building are the typical state office building. The powerful US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals is located directly in front of the capital building. This building was constructed in 1858 and survived the burning of the Richmond capital as the confederate army withdrew from the capital. At one point, when Thomas Jefferson designed the State House there would have been a view to the James river. The construction of this building would have partially obscured that view.
The map of the grounds provides a good overview of where the buildings are located. The Virginia Executive Mansion is located at at the upper right corner of the map. As I was taking a photo of the mansion, the governor exited and waved. He yelled over, and asked “how are you doing today?”. Near the the house is the civil rights memorial. At the other corner is a massive statue of Virginia’s favorite son, George Washington, riding his horse (also surrounded in scaffolding). Walking down the hill is the Virginia Woman’s Monument paying tribute to the history of the woman’s suffrage movement in Virginia. On the same side but down the hill is the Virginia Indian Tribute.
Virginia Capital Building
It was difficult to get photos of the capital building because of scaffolding on three sides of the building. This is one of the oldest state houses in the country. The Virginia Capital Building was designed by Thomas Jefferson and first occupied in 1778. The confederate council also held their meetings in the same building. The building has been expanded over time and continues to expand. Inside the building are two models of the capital. One is the original model that Jefferson had made in France to provide a visual display to help convince people to agree to the planned structure. The second model is a recent recreation of the original model to show what the model originally would have looked like.
Inside the Virginia Capital Building
I noticed a sign near the back of the building that read “Daily tours” and a finger pointing to an entrance. I didn’t read the times when the tours ran. I went to the door and entered. There was no one at the security desk. I noticed a sign for tours straight ahead and then another sign that said tours on the second floor. I took the elevator to the second floor and saw a sign that said “Tour”. There was no one there. My first thought was they were probably doing the tour. I sat and waited for 5-10 minutes. I then began to walk around reading the plaques waiting for the tour to begin. I was actually there for a while and got some good photos.
It turns out, that the first tour didn’t start until 1:00 pm, and I should not have been in the building. The door should have been locked, but the latch had an issue and didn’t catch when the last person left the building. The police where called and long story short, after a lot of questions, showing my drivers license, and inspecting my camera bag they let me go on the tour. It wasn’t a pleasant situation, but I understood they were just doing their job.
The actual tour covered almost everything I had read on the plaques around the capital with some additional information thrown in. While I was reading the plaques, I took photos of the building that probably wouldn’t have been possible during the tour.
Virginia has a long political history and has been the home of many presidents. The rotunda is a tribute to the presidents with Washington in the Center. Many decisive meetings have taken place in the capital. The statue of Washington is almost an exact replica of him. A plaster mask was made Washington’s face and hundreds of measurements of his body were made.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited Richmond, VA in 2007 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement in Virginia. This was not on the actual tour.
M.C. Escher Stairs Impression
Using an 11mm lens, I tried to capture a sense of M.C. Escher’s Relativity. The lens provides a strong distortion of the actual angles and the checkered marble floor provides patterns that add to the distortions.
The John Marshall House
A few blocks from the capital building is The John Marshall House which was closed when I arrived. John Marshall is the longest serving Chief Justice of the Supreme Court serving from 1801-1835. I was fascinated by everything I read about Marshall. He is still regarded as one of the most influential justices of the Supreme Court.
