The North Carolina State Capitol is the main house of government of the U.S. state of North Carolina. Housing the offices of the Governor of North Carolina, it is located in the state capital of Raleigh on Union Square at One East Edenton Street. The cornerstone of the Greek Revival building was laid with Masonic honors by the Grand Master of the State Simmons Jones Baker on July 4, 1833. Construction was completed in 1840. It was designed primarily by the architectural firm of Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis. Often credited solely to that team, the design of the capitol was actually the result of a sequence of work by William Nichols, Sr. and his son William Nichols, Jr., Town and Davis, and then David Paton. The Capitol housed the entire state government until 1888, and the North Carolina General Assembly met in the capitol building until 1963 when the legislature relocated to its current location in the North Carolina State Legislative Building. The offices of the state Lieutenant Governor were situated in the capitol building continuously until 1969, when the Lieutenant Governor relocated to the Hawkins-Hartness House a few blocks away on North Blount Street. The current Lieutenant Governor has reoccupied an office in the capitol building.
The North Carolina Supreme Court has also convened in the building in the past. The Governor and the governor's immediate staff has continued to occupy offices in the building.
The Capitol was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1973.
Read more about North Carolina State Capitol: Image Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words north, carolina, state and/or capitol:
“Civilization does not engross all the virtues of humanity: she has not even her full share of them. They flourish in greater abundance and attain greater strength among many barbarous people. The hospitality of the wild Arab, the courage of the North American Indian, and the faithful friendships of some of the Polynesian nations, far surpass any thing of a similar kind among the polished communities of Europe.”
—Herman Melville (18191891)
“I hear ... foreigners, who would boycott an employer if he hired a colored workman, complain of wrong and oppression, of low wages and long hours, clamoring for eight-hour systems ... ah, come with me, I feel like saying, I can show you workingmens wrong and workingmens toil which, could it speak, would send up a wail that might be heard from the Potomac to the Rio Grande; and should it unite and act, would shake this country from Carolina to California.”
—Anna Julia Cooper (18591964)
“A sound mind in a sound body, is a short, but full description of a happy state in this World: he that has these two, has little more to wish for; and he that wants either of them, will be little the better for anything else.”
—John Locke (16321704)
“A woman with her two children was captured on the steps of the capitol building, whither she had fled for protection, and this, too, while the stars and stripes floated over it.”
—Jane Grey Swisshelm (18151884)