cpc.state.pa.us

03 May 2023

A Message from the Chair of the Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee:

On behalf of the members of the Capitol Preservation Committee, welcome to the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building. For the past forty-one years, Capitol Preservation (CPC) has directed over 160 individual long-term projects in a successful and successive effort to restore, conserve, and preserve the artwork, architecture, and history of the monumental, one-of-a-kind, Pennsylvania State Capitol.

Designed by thirty-six-year-old Philadelphia architect Joseph M. Huston, and constructed from 1902-1906, the building contains 640 rooms, outstanding and priceless murals by Edwin Austin Abbey, Violet Oakley, William Brantley Van Ingen, Vincent Maragliotti, and Donald MacGregor, sculpture by George Grey Barnard, Roland Hinton Perry, and Vincenzo Alfano and the famed Moravian Tile Floor by Henry Chapman Mercer. The building showcases stained glass windows, marble from around the world, 24-karat gold leafing, massive bronze doors, chandeliers, carpets, draperies, ornate woodwork and ornamental plaster.

Over the committee's forty-plus year existence we have taken great pride in restoring the Capitol to its original 1906 grandeur. Some of our most prominent projects are the restoration of the Main Rotunda murals and marble, the conservation of the Commonwealth's historic collection of civil war battle flags, the restoration of the Senate and House chambers, the completion of the Governor's private office suite, and the removal and restoration of the statue Commonwealth from atop the Capitol dome.

In large part due to the preservation committee's ongoing campaign of restoration and sustained efforts at preservation maintenance, the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building is widely recognized as one of the most beautiful state capitols in the nation. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Main Capitol was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006. Additionally, the entire Capitol Complex was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 2013. As such the Preservation Committee looks forward to continuing restoration in the ornate spaces within the other Complex Buildings, such as the Forum Building's Law Library (completed in 2017) and the North Office Building's 104 Suite (completed in 2018).

As Representative of the 103rd District, where the Capitol is located, I am honored to serve as the fourth Chair of the Capitol Preservation Committee. The legacy and continued preservation of the Capitol and wider Capitol Complex is important work and one that all Pennsylvanians can be proud of. I look forward to working with both old and new members of the committee as we move forward in the preservation of Pennsylvania's truly remarkable "Palace of Art."

Representative Patty Kim
Chair, Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee