Ohio Statehouse Interior
Part 2. The Art and Interior Architecture
The interior and exterior of the Ohio Statehouse has been restored to its 1861 appearance as best possible, and is among the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in the country. It is among the oldest in continuous use as a working Statehouse.
The Visitor Entrance is on the east side through the Senate Building. For tours you will pass through the Senate Building and down to the Map Room under the Capitol Atrium on the Ground Floor. You can also enter directly into the Ground Floor from the parking garage on the southwest side where the garage wraps around the building below the Capitol Square grounds.
Ground Floor
Information is available for self-guided tours or you can inquire about guided tours, which is what I did. The guide was very knowledgeable, and helpful in identifying some of the architectural information I was looking for. The Map Room features a beautiful marble floor depicting the 88 counties in Ohio and two sculptures depicting The Historic Classroom, and The Modern Classroom, which are detailed bronze reliefs by sculptor George Danhires.
George Danhires was born in Kent Ohio and has been active as a sculptor since the 1980s. He studied at Ohio University and has taught at the University of Akron, Kent State University, and East Carolina University.
From the Map Room there is a Museum Shop, the Museum Gallery and the Museum, the Capitol Café, and meeting spaces where community groups can reserve space for their meetings.
The Museum Gallery reveals the massive masonry construction for the base of the Statehouse with barrel arches and groin vaults that support the rotunda and staircase galleries above. Leading into the Museum are two busts, that of Cleisthenes, and Salmon P Chase.
Cleisthenes, 508 BCE, was born into the Athenian aristocracy and is credited with significantly reforming the political structure and process in Athens. He is often referred to as the founder of modern democracy. The sculpture is by Anna Christoforidis, 2004.
Salmon Portland Chase, 1808 to 1873, served as the first governor in the current Statehouse and later as a chief justice on the US Supreme Court. The sculpture is by TD Jones, 1864.
Anna Christoforidis was born in and studied in Greece and at the Ohio State University.
Thomas Dow Jones, 1811 to 1881, was born in Oneida County New York and moved to Cincinnati as a stonemason. He began sculpting busts in the 1840s and moved to New York City in the 1850s.
Included in the museum is an abundance of displays on the Statehouse design and construction. Here are two panels that discuss the building design with its exterior detailing in the Doric order of the Greek Revival architectural style, and the interior using influences from both the Greeks and Romans.
First Floor
The First Floor provides a main entrance from the east side directly into a gallery leading to the Rotunda. Across the Rotunda is another gallery leading into the Capitol Atrium and Senate Building where the main Visitor Entrance is located on the west side.
The layout is symmetrical with similar galleries and entrances leading to the north and south, each with grand staircases leading up to the second floor. The north gallery includes the entrance to the governor’s offices, which are used primarily for ceremonial purposes and meeting space when the legislature is in session. The south wing includes meeting and hearing rooms for the House of Representatives.
In addition to the grand staircases, there are two stair towers with elevators providing access to every level. These spaces were originally known as Light Courts and were completely open to allow light into the rooms on each side. Today they have skylights with stairs and elevators. The open Light Courts were needed up until about 1892 when the building was wired for electrical lighting.
Four staircase galleries lead into the Rotunda which has a beautiful marble tile floor design that includes cut tiles using a Fibonacci mathematical sequence to create a pattern that can be found in many flowering plants. Over the Rotunda is a domed ceiling that does not reflect the cupola and conical roof form on the exterior. The center includes the state seal and a large stained glass oculus that allows light in from the cupola windows above.
In the museum is an original State Seal in stained glass from the oculus of the dome installed in the 1920s and then removed and replaced in 1965.
The rotunda also features the Lincoln and Soldiers Monument, which commemorates Abraham Lincoln and the victims at the Siege of Vicksburg during the Civil War. Those depicted in addition to Lincoln include Confederate officers Major General John S. Bowen, Colonel L. M. Montgomery, and Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton; and Union generals, Major General Ulysses S. Grant, Major General James B. McPherson, and Major General William T. Sherman. The sculpture is by Thomas Dow Jones, 1871, who also sculpted the bust of Salmon P. Chase in the Capitol Museum.
There are two other sculptures on the first floor, that of William McCulloch and George Washington Williams.
William Moore McCulloch, 1901 to 1980, was Speaker of the House in Ohio and a long term representative to the US House of Representatives. His bust is by Jack Earl, 2014.
George Washington Williams, 1849 to 1891, served with the US Colored Troops during the Civil War. He became a pastor, lawyer, author, and the first African American to serve in the Ohio General Assembly from 1880 to 1881. His bust was sculpted by Ed Dwight, 2001.
Jack Earl, 1934 to 2023, was born in Uniopolis Ohio and studied at Bluffton College and Ohio State University. He taught at the Toledo Museum of Art and Design, Virginia Commonwealth University and was a resident artist at the Kohler Arts Center. He was a sculptor and became a noted ceramicist.
Ed Dwight was born in 1933 in Kansas City Kansas and studied at the Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City Junior College, and the University of Denver. He is a noted African American sculptor, art instructor at the University of Denver, and operates Ed Dwight Studios in Denver, focusing on American West and African American themes. Early in his career Ed Dwight served in the U.S. Air Force where he became a test pilot and was selected for astronaut training. He did not fly then, but in 2024 he flew on the suborbital test flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard NS-25.
Paintings
There are five large paintings in the Statehouse on public display depicting Ohio History. One can be found in the rotunda titled Perry’s Victory on Lake Erie, and the other four are located in the surrounding grand staircase galleries.
The Signing of the Treaty of Greene Ville illustrates the signing of a peace treaty in 1795 between Native Americans and the United States following the defeat of several tribes at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. The painting is by Howard Chandler Christy, 1945.
Howard Chandler Christy, 1873 to 1952, was born in Morgan County Ohio, and studied at the Art Students League of New York, and the National Academy under William Merritt Chase on Long Island and in New York City. He is noted for many patriotic posters, paintings, and portraits of prominent politicians from the early 1900s.
Perry’s Victory on Lake Erie, depicts Oliver Howard Perry, 1785 to 1819, on Lake Erie during the War of 1812, that effectively gave the United States control of the lake. The painting is by William H. Powell, 1865.
William H. Powell, 1823 to 1879, was born in New York City and studied under artist Henry Inman. He is noted for his paintings for the US Capitol, the “Mississippi River,” located in the Capitol rotunda, and a larger version of “Perry’s Victory on Lake Erie,” located in the north staircase gallery of the Capitol.
Greeting Lincoln portrays Lincoln when he addressed the Ohio legislature after he became President. The painting is by Pamela Patrick White, 2018.
Pamela Patrick White, can be found at White Historic Art in Everett Pennsylvania. White and her husband Bryant White are noted for their paintings of early American historical events.
Dawn of a New Light celebrates the inventions of Thomas Edison, 1847 to 1931, and his life at various stages. The painting is by Howard Chandler Christy, 1950, who also painted the Signing of the Treaty of Greene Ville.
Wilbur and Orville Wright and their Accomplishments celebrates their work towards flight. The painting is by Dwight Mutchler, 1959.
Dwight Mutchler, 1903 to 1976, was an art professor at Ohio University.
Ohioans in Space, depicts promenent individuals in the space program from Ohio. There are at least 25 astronauts from Ohio that have flown to space. This painting of Ohioans in Space includes John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, and Judy Resnik, with Flight Director Gene Kranz. The painting is by William Hinsch, 2024.
William Hinsch, was born in 1955 in Hicksville Ohio, and has a studio in Perrysburg Ohio. He is noted for his corporate art featuring military, space, and aviation themes.
Second Floor
The second floor provides access to the Senate Chamber in the north wing and the House Chamber in the south wing. There are private walkways above each side of the Atrium that provide access for members to the Senate building.
House Chamber
The House of Representatives Chamber provide desks for 99 representatives and features elaborate decorative finishes restored to the original construction from 1861. The desks are reproductions of originals and wired with current technology.
It is one of the more elaborately decorated rooms with Corinthian columns supporting the gallery and intricate detailing in the ceiling and balconies. The design is credited to the architect Nathan Kelly, which was cause for controversy with the Commission that hired him.
Senate Chamber
The Senate Chamber provides desk seating for 33 members and features similar detailing as found in the House Chamber.
The chamber was closed and not accessible on this visit except for this view from the entrance door.
There is a third floor, also accessible from the grand staircases, which provide access to the public galleries above the Senate and House Chambers, along with additional office space.
Capitol Atrium
The Capitol Atrium encloses a courtyard between the Statehouse and the Senate building. It is a beautiful space with an abundance of light from the connecting window walls and the skylights above. Prior to completion of the Atrium, the open courtyard was known as Pigeon Run because of all the pigeons that tended to perch and gather on and between the buildings.
On this visit an exhibition of state employers was in progress where I had an opportunity to talk to a few NASA representatives from the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland Ohio. The Atrium is a good place to explore the limestone surfaces of the Statehouse where you can find numerous fossil formations. These three were not on their fossil map but were found on the columns to the east entrance to the Statehouse that is enclosed by the Atrium.
Based on the Statehouse Fossils guide, they look like a Dendrobranchiata (shrimp), a Bivalve Modiomorpha Concentrica (clam), and the cross-section of a Marine Gastropod (sea snail), all of which date back several hundred million years.
Senate Building
The Senate building includes an open gallery with Grand Staircases between floors featuring a beautiful skylight and paintings in the coffered ceiling above. Designed in a Beaux Arts style the staircase gallery presents a beautiful and grand space designed by the architect Samuel Hannaford and completed in 1901.
Above the grand staircase is a coffered ceiling featuring four murals and a beautiful skylight with the state seal in the center.
The paintings depict the four faces of Athena, a Greek goddess, representing Art, Justice, Agriculture, and Manufacturing. The murals are by Raphael and Charles Pedretti, 1901.
Raphael Pedretti, born in 1864, and Charles Pedretti, 1860 to 1929, were the sons of Francis Pedretti, 1829 to 1891, a famous artist from Italy who they worked with throughout his career. They are noted for numerous murals in public buildings, hotels, and homes in Cincinnati, Columbus, and the surrounding areas.
The Statehouse and Senate building have been beautifully restored, and with the Museum in the basement level, now provide excellent historical information on the State and the Statehouse’s development. This is an excellent place to learn about our country, Ohio history, and the beautiful architecture from early American history.
Travel Notes
On my second visit to the Statehouse I stayed at the Holiday Inn Downtown where they had overnight charging available for electric vehicles, for free!, a nice perk at many hotels. It was a short walk from there to Capitol Square on a beautiful day.
This trip also included my first long distance travel in the Cybertruck, as I traveled on over to Boston and Acadia National Park in Maine, and then Main State Capitol already published in another story. The truck made for a nice comfortable ride, much smoother than the Model 3 that I had on my first tour here in 2019.
Notes and References
Story and photographs by David Smitherman, with data collected from onsite inscriptions and brochures, Wikipedia, and Google Maps. Site visits were made in July 2019 and July 2024.
“Ohio Statehouse: A Building for the Ages,” by Cheryl J. Straker and Chris Matheney, Donning Company Publishers, 2011. “The Modern Classroom” image is from page 53, by the Ohio Statehouse Telecommunications.
Pamela Patrick White: https://www.whitehistoricart.com/.
Bill Hinsch: https://www.bill-art.com/.