6th Capital Trip

We visited six states and the District of
Columbia. 

On the way to Pennsylvania we stopped in Canton, Ohio to visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  I haven't been there since.

Harrisburg is the capital city, roughly half-way between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.  Mom and Dad lived three hours north of Pittsburgh near Ridgeway for a couple years in the 1990s.  

In 2006, Dad and I took my son Matt to Pittsburgh as part of a week-long baseball trip.  We saw the Milwaukee Brewers in two games against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

At the time, the statehouse was relatively young, just 71 years old.  Furniture in the Governor's conference room, which we saw on the tour was more than 100 years at the time.  My lasting memory in the Commonwealth state was our stop at Hershey's Chocolate World which offered a simulated tour for visitors.

New Jersey's Capitol in
Trenton, seen on a postcard.

 Two days later we were in New Jersey to see the statehouse in Trenton, but our journey delivered us there when no tours were available, so we walked through on our own.  Dad's comment in the scrapbook, "Old building but very nice."

 The scrapbook has a gap between our day in Trenton and the two statehouses we visited on June 30, which was the first of four days we spent in Washington, D.C. (more on that trip below)

 It's safe to say we were likely visiting an historic site or touring a business, but that's a guess.

 I recall more of our stop in Dover, Delaware, which is the second oldest capitol in the country (photo, lower right).  

 Unlike most (if not all) states, Delaware's state house is separate from the Legislative Hall which is elsewhere on the grounds.  When we visited the original building was mostly for show - with a courtroom and ceremonial office for the governor.

Delaware's Statehouse.

The Legislative Hall is a more recent vintage, but still quite old as the visitors gallery for the House of Representatives demonstrated with ceilings only 5-feet, 8-inches high.

Annapolis, Maryland
is a short trip from
Dover.

  The oldest state capitol in continuous use is in Maryland, which was our next stop.

 The building was constructed 1772-1780 with an addition 1902 - 1905. There was wide black marble line in the lobby designating the original and "new."  

 It's historic claim to fame is that Maryland is the only state capitol which also served as the capitol of the country, 11/26/1783 to 8/13/1784.  The building also boasts the largest dome made of wood.

 My strongest memories of Maryland include visiting the Naval Academy where we saw the tomb of Revolutionary War hero John Paul Jones and crossing the Chesapeake Bridge.

Our nation's capital.

The summer of 1978 was my transition from attending St. Paul's Lutheran School and starting my sophomore year that fall at Janesville Craig High School.

St. Paul's was one of several schools that traditionally sent their 8th grade class to Washington, D.C. to see the sites.  I didn't go on that trip or the 9th grade class trip to Florida, but certainly didn't miss out.  

My parents didn't think sending kids that age wasn't a good idea and I'll admit I was a little apprehensive of going.  In any case, Dad and I saw Washington six ways from Sunday.  We encountered Chief Justice Warren Burger at the Supreme Court, Senator John Glenn (D-Ohio and former astronaut), Senator William Proxmire (D-Wisconsin) and Muriel Humphrey (wife of Senator Hubert Humphrey, D-Minnesota).

A partial list of the places we visited: White House; U.S. Capitol; Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, and Iwo Jima memorials; Ford's Theater; National Archives; FBI Headquarters; Arlington Cemetery the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum.   

Washington
Landmarks

  As we walked around the Lincoln and Washington memorials we passed the annual protest in the National Mall favoring the legalization of marijuana.  I remember seeing a lot of smoke.

 From Washington we drove to Richmond, the capital city of Virginia and briefly the capital of the confederacy during the Civil War.

 Their building is similar to the design for the United States' Supreme Court (court photo left, lowest).

On our way to Richmond we toured George Washington's home at Mount Vernon, and also visited Monticello, the home of President Thomas Jefferson.

Richmond, VA

Jefferson also designed the Virginia capitol, using the Roman Temple design he saw while in France.

Ironically Richmond was the state's third capitol city as it moved farther inland twice for safety reasons; of course, in the Civil War, Union troops marched to the capitol.

We went west after spending the day in Richmond to see part of the original Virginia territory which became West Virginia.

Charleston, W. VA.

The mountains in West Virginia were beautiful.  In part our visit to this state resonated with me because the John Denver song, Country Roads, recorded in 1971 was a favorite of mine with its lyrical melody and sense of longing to be home again.

Their capitol dome is the largest in the United States and the only two color one.  The building is huge with 12 acres of floor space, and how is this for trivia we captured on the tour, "The carpet in the Governor's Reception Room is one of the world's largest seamless carpets at 27 feet by 72 feet."

Six states and seven capitals later, I was ready for country roads and interstate highways to take me home.  As it turned out, there was only capital trip left.