cpc.state.pa.us

06 December 2024

A Message from the Executive Director:

Welcome to the homepage for the Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee.

Over the past 40 years, the Capitol Preservation Committee (CPC) has directed numerous projects to restore, conserve, and preserve the art, architecture, and history of the Pennsylvania Capitol and Capitol Complex Buildings.

The Pennsylvania Capitol Building is truly a one-of-a-kind structure, designed by Philadelphia architect Joseph Miller Huston and built from 1902-1906, it contains 640 rooms, priceless murals by Edwin Austin Abbey, Violet Oakley, and William Brantley Van Ingen, sculpture by George Grey Barnard and Vincent Alfano, and Henry Chapman Mercer’s renowned Moravian Tiled Floor. It contains ornate stained glass, marble from across the world, 24-karat gold leafing, massive bronze chandeliers, carpets, draperies, and ornate woodwork.

The CPC has conducted well over 160 individual restoration projects designed to return the Capitol to its original 1906 appearance and preserve it for future generations. Some of our most prominent projects are the restoration of the Main Rotunda and dome, the conservation of Pennsylvania's historic Civil War battle flags, and the removal and restoration of the statue Commonwealth from the Capitol dome.

In large part due to the Preservation Committee's ongoing restoration and sustained campaign of preservation maintenance, the Pennsylvania State Capitol is widely-recognized as one of the most beautiful state capitol buildings in the nation. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006.

As executive director of the Capitol Preservation Committee, I welcome you to your state capitol building, Pennsylvania’s magnificent “palace of art.”