Tennessee State Capitol - Nashville, Tennessee
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 36° 09.930 W 086° 47.044
16S E 519420 N 4002326
State capitol building for Tennessee in Nashville.
Waymark Code: WMGGGV
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 03/03/2013
Views: 14
The STATE CAPITOL, Cedar St. between 6th and 7th Aves. N., and extending to Gay St., is on Capitol Hill, the highest point in the city. In 1811 a neighbor bought a cow from Judge George W. Campbell and was unable to pay for it. "But I'll tell you what," the neighbor said, "I've got a pretty fair rifle gun and I own old Cedar Knob up yonder. Write my debt off your books and you can have them." Campbell agreed. Thirty-three years later the city bought Cedar Knob from Judge Campbell for $30,000 and presented it to the State as the site for the Capitol. The building was finished in 1855, the terrace completed in 1859. The crest of the hill was removed to a foundation of solid rock; blocks of fossilized limestone for the building, from 4 1/2 to 7 feet thick, were quarried by prisoners and slaves. The cost of the building exceeded $1,500,000.
In 1862, the building placed under a heavy guard and surrounded by a stockade, was renamed Fort Johnson, headquarters of Federal activities. Union soldiers badly damaged the grounds.
The building, designed by William Strickland, who lived in Nashville from 1844 to 1854, follows the plan of an Ionic temple. The pedimented Ionic porticos on each facade are modeled after those of the Erectheum at Athens, each having eight fluted columns, with hand-carved capitals of solid stone. The east and west porticos have six Ionic columns, surmounted by parapets. Strickland was buried in a recess in the north portico wall. The long gable of the roof is broken by a central tower, the upper portion designed in the manner of the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens. - Tennessee: A Guide to the State, Nashville section , pg. 189.
The Tennessee State Capitol is much as it is described in the Guide. The building underwent an extensive restoration in the 1950s. The building was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1971.