Vandalia State House
The state of Illinois gave the Vandalia State House (in operation in 1836-1839, only three years) to Vandalia's county, Fayette County, for use as the county courthouse. Fayette County taxpayers paid to build the handsome porticoes added to the courthouse in the late 1850s, which made the building a structure in the Greek Revival style. The courthouse served the people of Fayette County in 1839-1933, when it reverted to the state.
In 1933, the old courthouse became the Vandalia State House State Memorial, and an extensive program of interior refitting and reconstruction began. In 1985 the building became a State Historic Site within the new Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (IHPA).
The IHPA maintains the old state house and interprets it to its brief time as Illinois's fourth capitol building in 1836-39. Guided tours are offered and visitors can also view the period rooms on their own.
Read more about this topic: Vandalia State House State Historic Site
Famous quotes containing the words state and/or house:
“A Church which has lost its memory is in a sad state of senility.”
—Henry Chadwick (b. 1920)
“[My father] was a lazy man. It was the days of independent incomes, and if you had an independent income you didn’t work. You weren’t expected to. I strongly suspect that my father would not have been particularly good at working anyway. He left our house in Torquay every morning and went to his club. He returned, in a cab, for lunch, and in the afternoon went back to the club, played whist all afternoon, and returned to the house in time to dress for dinner.”
—Agatha Christie (1891–1976)