Building
The building is situated on 6.7 acres (27,000 m²) of land on top of Beacon Hill in Boston, adjacent to the Boston Common on Beacon Street. It was built on land once owned by John Hancock, Massachusetts's first elected governor.
Before the current State House was completed during 1798, Massachusetts's government house was the Old State House on Court Street. For his design for the building, architect Charles Bulfinch was inspired by two buildings of London: William Chambers's Somerset House, and James Wyatt's Pantheon.
A major expansion of the original building was completed in 1895. The architect for the annex was Bostonian Charles Brigham.
During 1917 the east and west wings were completed. Designed by architects Sturgis, Chapman & Andrews.
Read more about this topic: Massachusetts State House
Famous quotes containing the word building:
“... what’s been building since the 1980’s is a new kind of social Darwinism that blames poverty and crime and the crisis of our youth on a breakdown of the family. That’s what will last after this flurry on family values.”
—Stephanie Coontz (b. 1944)
“Whoever places his trust into a system will soon be without a home. While you are building your third story, the two lower ones have already been dismantled.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“A building is akin to dogma; it is insolent, like dogma. Whether or no it is permanent, it claims permanence, like a dogma. People ask why we have no typical architecture of the modern world, like impressionism in painting. Surely it is obviously because we have not enough dogmas; we cannot bear to see anything in the sky that is solid and enduring, anything in the sky that does not change like the clouds of the sky.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)