Louisiana State Capitol Building – Baton Rouge History

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Host: Kyle Crosby
Camera/Editor: Michael Malley

Transcript:
This is the Louisiana State Capitol or the Capitole de l’État de Louisiane and it houses the chambers for the Louisiana House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as the office of the Governor. Completed in 1931, the capitol building stands at 450 feet tall and 34 stories, making it the tallest skyscraper in Baton Rouge and the tallest capitol in the United States.

New Orleans had been the Capital of Louisiana for a while, but there was a feeling amongst the representatives in states across the country at the time. They feared having their state’s largest city possessing a concentration of power by making it the capital.

There was a clause included in the Louisiana State Constitution of 1845 that required the state capital to be moved from New Orleans by 1849. Baton Rouge was chosen as the new Capitol and a castle was constructed as the government headquarters.

By the 1920s, the Old State Capitol was starting to show its age and proving to be too small for the expanding state government. In 1928, Huey Long was elected Governor of Louisiana as a populist candidate. He seized upon the idea of using a new capitol as a way to symbolize the end of the “political domination of Louisiana’s traditional social and economic elite” in the state. None of that ended, but anyway. In January 1930, Long secured funds from the Board of Liquidation, enabling him to hire architects to design the new capitol and approached Leon C. Weiss with the proposal.

By using funds that he controlled to start the design work, Long prevented the State Legislature from stopping the construction of the capitol. The designs for the capitol consisted of a modern skyscraper, and was slated to be constructed on the grounds of the old LSU campus. Work on the building progressed rapidly due to the insistence by Long that it be completed under his governorship.

Huey Long, who had been elected to the United States Senate in 1930, delayed taking the oath of office until January 1932 to prevent a political adversary, Paul N. Cyr, from becoming governor. Despite being completed in little over a year, the State Capitol was not dedicated until May 16, 1932, during the inauguration of Governor Oscar K. Allen.

In a sort of sad irony, on September 8, 1935, Huey Long was assassinated in his State Capitol Building by Dr. Carl Weiss. His alleged motivation for the attack was that his father-in-law, Judge Benjamin Pavy, was going to be gerrymandered out of office by Long.

His body lay at the State Capitol, but was later interred on the grounds in front of the Capitol. Stray bullets that were fired by Weiss and are still present directly outside of the governor’s office.

On April 26, 1970, a bomb consisting of twenty to 30 sticks of dynamite was detonated in the Senate Chamber. The bomb was an apparent retaliation for the shootings of three African Americans by the police. A pencil remains embedded in the ceiling of the chamber from the force of the explosion.

The Capitol’s facade includes much of Louisiana’s symbols and our history. A frieze runs along the top of the tower’s base, at the fifth floor, depicting the actions of Louisianans in wartime and peace, from colonization to World War I. Outside of the House and Senate chambers are 22 square portraits of important people in Louisiana history, designed by several Louisiana sculptors.

To reach the Capitol’s front door, you must ascend a “monumental stairway” consisting of 49, granite steps. Each step has engraved the name of a U.S. state in the order of its statehood; Alaska and Hawaii, which were admitted after the completion of the Capitol, are both on the last step along with the phrase “E pluribus unum”.

The Louisiana State Capitol was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 9, 1972, and was designated a National Historic Landmark on December 12, 1982. Come take a tour of the building on your next trip to Baton Rouge.

For more history, horror, folklore, and culture, subscribe to Louisiana Dread and Geaux Tigers. I’m Kyle Crosby and this is Louisiana Dread: Quick History.

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