It was a beautiful day for a tour of the Kentucky capitol. The building is a classic design on gorgeous grounds.
The dome was being rehabbed. Because they were careful with the construction, the building looked better than other capitols that were under construction.
Here is the view from the front of the capitol and a view of the detail on the outside of the building.
In the center of the capitol there is a statue honoring a native son, Abraham Lincoln.
Directly above the statue of Lincoln is the dome of the capitol. It was lit in a pale blue color. There are also paintings representing different parts of the state’s history in the dome.
At one end of the capitol is the Senate. The room is well laid out and provides a gallery with a nice view of the proceedings. We also took a close up of the front of the Senate room.
At the opposite end of the capitol is the House floor. It is also well appointed with an amazing skylight. We also took a close up of the front of this room.
The Supreme Court is housed in the Capitol. The wood paneling and the ceiling detail are spectacular.
When we walked by the dome a second time we noticed that it looked different. As we tried to figure out why, the color of the dome lights changed. We discovered that the color of the lights rotated through seven different shades in a repeating pattern. It includes the blue we first saw and the additional six colors below. Because the colors are muted, the impact is impressive rather than gaudy.
When you view the capitol from either end, you see how impressive the design of the capitol is. In the series below, you can see the long view from one end to the other, in the middle is the same view from the middle of the building. The third view is a close up from the bottom of the staircase.
The stairway at the opposite end of the floor is very similar. The biggest variation is the mural in the arch. The skylights in the ceiling add to the beauty of the building.
There was a large school tour of the capitol at the same time we were walking through. The guides for that tour had informed us of the group and said they would try to let us tour without any interruption. We happened to cross paths in the reception room on the second floor. They asked us if we were done before the group entered. We said that we they could come in.
We let them know that we have seen about 30 of the 50 state capitols we planned to visit. We added that Kentucky’s capitol was our favorite so far. One of the guides thanked us and said that a recent survey had shown that Kentucky placed just behind Pennsylvania as the best capitol building. We let them know we had seen the capitol in Harrisburg and we still chose their capitol in Frankfurt as the best.
You may have noticed the motto In God We Trust in the two legislative room close up pictures. We also saw several more references in the capitol. The third plaque below was outside the Chapel. We have not seen many other chapels in capitols. Trust in God was a strong theme throughout the building.
The governor’s home is on the same grounds as the capitol. It, too, is a very nice building.
Our next stop after the Kentucky capitol was supposed to be the capitol in Charleston, West Virginia. That tour was dropped from our schedule when we got a flat tire on the interstate. Our day changed to waiting for AAA to change to the spare, then waiting several hours in Mount Sterling Kentucky while a new tire was installed on our car. We had insurance for our tire, so the replacement cost was minimal. It took some time for the insurance to be approved.
We were not sure how we would get food since we had no transportation. The tire shop staff said the gas station just down the road had great sandwiches. We were skeptical, but the sandwiches were very good.
Because of the delay, we could not get to the West Virginia Capitol before they closed for the day. We decided that we would go there on a future trip. So we skipped the tour for now and drove home as we had planned to do after the tour. (This photo was not taken for the traffic stop but for the frozen waterfall on the rock on the side of the road)
This was a very quick six day tour. In a very short time we got to see a wide variety of places. We enjoyed our short trip.