Massachusetts State House Audio Guide

Massachusetts State House: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to the Massachusetts State House

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to the Massachusetts State House highlights Welcome to the Massachusetts State House and points out what to notice during your visit.

   Welcome to the Massachusetts State House, the seat of government for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, standing in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston. This is a working building. It houses the Massachusetts General Court, which is the state legislature, along with the offices of the Governor of Massachusetts. It is also one of the oldest state capitols still in use anywhere in the country. The American-born architect Charles Bulfinch designed it, and it was completed in January 1798. It has been enlarged again and again since then, and it is considered a masterpiece of Federal architecture. It was designated a National Historic Landmark for its architectural significance. Over the next few stops, we will follow the story of a building that grew far beyond its first plan. We will meet the architect, look at how the State House expanded over the generations, and then dig into a buried time capsule and some grand receptions held inside. Take a moment to look at the original front of the building, because everything we discuss grows from that Bulfinch design.

2. 02

   Charles Bulfinch and the Birth of an Idea

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to the Massachusetts State House highlights Charles Bulfinch and the Birth of an Idea and points out what to notice during your visit.

   Charles Bulfinch is often called the first American-born professional architect, and the State House is among his finest works. He studied at Harvard, then toured Europe between 1785 and 1787. On the advice of Thomas Jefferson, whom he met in Paris, he visited major architectural works in France and Italy. In London he came to know the neoclassical style of the Scottish-born architect Robert Adam, and he is credited with introducing the Adam style to the United States. His State House design dates to 1787 and 1788, but construction ran from 1795 to 1798. The final bill came to 133,333 dollars, more than five times the budget. If you have ever watched a public project overrun its estimate, you are in good company here. Bulfinch was not only a designer of buildings. He served on Boston's board of selectmen, where he directed improvements to the local street system and to Boston Common and its surroundings. His career took him to the United States Capitol in Washington, where he was the fourth architect to oversee the work and prepared a new design for the rotunda. He also designed the Connecticut State House in Hartford, now known as the Old State House, and the Maine Capitol. After Maine separated from Massachusetts in 1820, its capitol drew on the Massachusetts building, in a simplified Greek Revival style. There is a twist, too. Bulfinch designed the Massachusetts State Prison in 1803, and he later ended up there himself as a debtor.

3. 03

   A Building That Kept Growing

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to the Massachusetts State House highlights A Building That Kept Growing and points out what to notice during your visit.

   The Bulfinch front is only the beginning of what you see here. The State House has been enlarged repeatedly, and each generation left its mark. The third addition, designed by Charles Brigham, included the large yellow brick extension that is still in use today. It replaced the earlier additions to the north portico. Then, between 1914 and 1917, came the fourth addition, the east and west wings designed by Chapman, Sturgis, and Andrews. These wings were built of white Vermont marble, and they frame the original Bulfinch front. As you look at the building, you can read the story in the materials, from the original core to the yellow brick and the marble wings. On the right side of the building is Ashburton Park, with the Beacon Hill Eagle Monument at its center. It was built where a long-standing parking lot used to be. The Beacon Hill Monument itself was designed by Bulfinch to commemorate the events that led up to the American Revolution. It is a small reminder that this hill carried revolutionary memory long before the current building rose here.

4. 04

   Time Capsules, Banquets, and Doric Hall

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to the Massachusetts State House highlights Time Capsules, Banquets, and Doric Hall and points out what to notice during your visit.

   Some of the best stories here lie beneath the surface. A time capsule, buried with the cornerstone and connected with Paul Revere and Sam Adams, was discovered in Boston in the twenty-first century. It measured about 5.5 inches by 7.5 inches by 1.5 inches and weighed about 10 pounds, and it holds coins. Under a State Police escort, it traveled to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where conservator Pamela Hatchfield opened, examined, and conserved it. The cornerstone and time capsule were quietly returned to their original places on Thursday, June 18, 2015. They went back with a new silver plate commemorating the occasion and a mint set of 2015 United States coins. So the capsule now carries messages from two eras. Inside, Doric Hall takes its name from the double row of columns with Doric capitals that Bulfinch used. It has hosted important guests. State officials held a banquet here for President James Monroe when he visited Boston in 1817, and a reception for General Marquis de Lafayette during his American tour in 1824. Picture those evenings, with the early republic's leaders raising glasses beneath those columns.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   This section of the Mappu audio guide to the Massachusetts State House highlights Before You Head Off and points out what to notice during your visit.

   As you finish your visit, look again at the whole composition. There is Bulfinch's original front, the yellow brick extension, and the white marble wings that frame the center. Each part belongs to a different chapter, yet together they make one working capitol. This building was completed just nine years after the ratification of the United States Constitution. It reflects the early Commonwealth's ambition to build lasting institutions of self-government and to express them in monumental architecture. Bulfinch's design went on to influence other state capitol buildings, from Maine's to many beyond. In 1898, the Commonwealth celebrated the centennial of what it called the Bulfinch State House, a nod to both the building and its architect. Now you can ask your own questions. Which parts of the building can you pick out as Bulfinch's, and which belong to later generations? The answers are written in the stone, brick, and marble around you.