Alabama Capitol

In 1847, following Cahawba and Tuscaloosa, Montgomery became Alabama's capital city. The state built the first capitol building in 1847, a handsome Greek Revival structure designed by Philadelphia architect Stephen Button. It burned in 1849. Between 1850 and 1851, the present Capitol, also in the Greek Revival style, was constructed on the previous building’s foundations. Builder and industrialist Daniel Pratt may have helped a committee design the building. African-American master carpenter Horace King executed much of the woodwork including, most likely, the three-story spiral stairways that dominate the original entrance hall. The state has expanded the building three times, adding a rear wing in 1885, two side wings between 1906 and 1912 and an extension to the rear wing in 1992.

The building served as home to all three branches of state government until 1940; at that time the Supreme Court moved to a separate building on Dexter Avenue. The legislature continued to meet in the Capitol until moving to the State House in 1985. In 1992, following a seven-year restoration and renovation effort by the Alabama Historical Commission, the governor and many other executive branch officers moved back into the Capitol.

Not only is the Alabama State Capitol a revered symbol to thousands of Alabamians, but it is also a significant monument in American history. Twice international attention has focused on Alabama’s Capitol. In February 1861, the Confederate States of America was born in the Senate chamber, where delegates from Southern states voted to establish a new nation. Underneath the west portico, a six-pointed brass star marks the location where Jefferson Davis took the oath of office as president of the Confederacy. The building served as the Capitol of the Confederacy until May 1861. A little more than a century later, the 1965 Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March, led by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., ended on the street in front of the Capitol. The Alabama State Capitol was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962. A major effort to rehabilitate the Capitol began in the 1970s. While most of this work was finished in 1992, efforts by the Alabama Historical Commission to restore and enhance the historical character of the building are ongoing.