New York State Capitol

The New York State Capitol took more than thirty years, five architects and, by the reckoning of the New York press of the day, over 27 million dollars — the most expensive government building in the country. Its Great Western Staircase, the Million Dollar Staircase, carries seventy-seven identifiable carved faces, from Lincoln to Susan B. Anthony, and hundreds more that nobody has ever identified, cut by hand from Scottish sandstone. On the morning of 29 March 1911 fire broke out at the west end of the third floor and destroyed the State Library, which had occupied the wing since 1883. It burned until after eleven; the building had no alarm, no hose and no buckets anywhere inside it. One person died: Samuel J. Abbott, seventy-seven, a Civil War veteran working as the library's night watchman, whose body was not recovered for several days. Since the 1980s the Capitol has had a reputation for phantom smoke and footsteps attributed to Abbott. The 1911 record contains no such thing, and neither does the state's own account of the building.

New York argued about how its Capitol should look for more than thirty years, and the argument is still visible in the walls. The legislature authorised the building in 1865, broke ground in 1867 and appointed Thomas Fuller as architect in 1868. The cornerstone was laid in 1871. By 1876 the exterior walls had climbed only to the second storey and the original appropriation had been spent, so an advisory board of Frederick Law Olmsted, Leopold Eidlitz and Henry Hobson Richardson was asked for a critical review. Fuller was dropped, and Eidlitz and Richardson finished the shell in a completely different manner. When the legislature insisted in 1877 that the Capitol be completed in Italian Renaissance, Richardson wrote privately to Olmsted that the building "can be well finished in Francois I or Louis XIV which come under the head of Renaissance" — a letter the National Park Service nomination quotes at length. Isaac G. Perry became Commissioner of the Capitol in 1883 and saw the work through; Governor Theodore Roosevelt declared the building complete in 1899. The New York press of 1911 put its cost at over 27 million dollars, which made it by a wide margin the most expensive government building in the country. Richardson's share of the interior included the Great Western Staircase, begun under Perry in 1884 and known ever since as the Million Dollar Staircase. It is one of the great pieces of hand carving in the United States. The stone is Corsehill sandstone shipped from Scotland, chosen because it is soft when fresh from the quarry and takes fine detail; every carving was cut in place with mallet and chisel, and, according to the state's own account, not even the smallest decorative motif was repeated twice. The carvers — most of them from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales — were paid up to five dollars for a ten-hour day, twice a labourer's wage. They cut seventy-seven identifiable faces from plaster models made by a sculptor in New York City, among them Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, and then filled the remaining foliage with faces nobody has ever identified: friends, relatives, and small comic heads tucked into the leafwork. The staircase was completed in 1897 with the installation of its skylight. Fourteen years later it was burning. At about a quarter to three on the morning of 29 March 1911, fire broke out at the western end of the third floor, in or near the Assembly library and the rooms behind the Assembly Judiciary Committee. It ran through the State Library, which had occupied the west wing since 1883, and was not under control until after eleven. The blaze lit the sky for miles; the legislature moved into Albany City Hall the same afternoon. The Evening World reported that six hundred thousand volumes had gone, and that the Capitol had no fire alarm, no hose, no buckets and no grenades anywhere inside it — a plan for fire protection had been floated after a smaller Capitol fire three years earlier and quietly dropped. The state carried its own insurance, so it carried the whole loss. Governor John A. Dix called it "an appalling disaster" and the destruction of the State Library "a national loss", adding that the state's copy of the Emancipation Proclamation and Washington's farewell address had been moved out to a safe in Commissioner Draper's office not long before. One man died. The Sun of 30 March 1911 named him: Samuel J. Abbott, seventy-seven years old, a Civil War veteran employed as night watchman in the State Library. The New-York Tribune reported the same day that he had been missing since the fire began and was believed to be buried under the stone and iron that fell from the roof to the fourth floor, and that the west end was too dangerous to search. Librarians Paul Mercer and Vicki Weiss, writing the State Library's centennial history of the fire in 2011, record that he was the only fatality and that his body was not recovered until several days later. The State Library did not return. It reopened in 1913 in the new State Education Building across the street, where its successor collections still hold fire-scorched survivors: the Van Rensselaer manor papers, a burnt-edged 1793 constitution of the New York City fire department. The Capitol was rebuilt at the west end under State Architect Lewis F. Pilcher. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and designated a National Historic Landmark on 29 January 1979.

The Capitol is a working seat of government and it is free to visit. It stands at the head of State Street in Albany, at the north end of the Empire State Plaza, and is open Monday to Friday from 7:00 to 19:00, closed at weekends and on state and federal holidays. Guided tours are free and start at the information desk in the Capitol's State Street lobby. Walk-in tours for individuals and parties of fewer than ten run on weekdays at 10:00, 12:00 and 14:00 and last fifty to sixty minutes; no booking is needed. Groups of ten or more must reserve, at least two weeks in advance, for tours on the hour between 9:00 and 15:00, with a maximum of forty people per slot; changes and cancellations go through the Empire State Plaza Visitor Center on +1 518-474-2418. In summer the Capitol has also run Friday evening tours at 17:30 — in the most recent published season, from 3 July to 28 August, with First Friday tours tied to local events. Dates change every year, so check before travelling. Security is airport-style and not optional. Every visitor passes through a metal detector and every bag is X-rayed. Backpacks and large bags are best left behind, and sharp objects — pocketknives, nail clippers — weapons, whistles and noisemakers are all refused at the door. Accessibility needs planning: the State Street entrance to the Capitol itself is not accessible. Step-free access is via the Madison Avenue elevator entrance, open daily 6:00 to 23:00, or through the Concourse from the street-level State Street entrance and the outdoor walkway at the north-east corner of the Abrams Building, weekdays 6:00 to 16:30. The Plaza Manager's Office (+1 518-474-8860) will advise. The outdoor Plaza itself is closed from 1 December to 31 March. Parking is in the Plaza visitor lots. The V-Lot beneath the Plaza, reached from the I-787 exit, charges a flat 10 dollars on weekdays and 5 at weekends, with no charge if you leave within ninety minutes; the Madison Avenue, Grand Street and Elk Street lots charge 10 dollars on weekdays and are free at weekends and on state holidays. All of them take cards only — no cash. The Visitor Center and gift shop on the Concourse is open weekdays 8:30 to 15:00. There are no ghost tours, and the west wing where the fire started is offices.