Massachusetts State House on Beacon Street - Boston
The Massachusetts State House is one of the great early American public buildings and arguably the architectural symbol of Boston. Sitting atop Beacon Hill overlooking Boston Common, it has served as the seat of Massachusetts government since 1798.
At the center of the building is its famous gold dome — originally wood-shingled, later coppered by Paul Revere’s company, and eventually gilded with 23-karat gold leaf. On top of the dome sits a gilded pine cone, symbolizing the importance of New England’s forests to the colony’s survival and economy.
The original building was designed by Charles Bulfinch, one of America’s first major native-born architects. Construction began in 1795 and the building was completed in 1798. Bulfinch drew inspiration from British neoclassical architecture, especially Somerset House in London, but adapted it into what became a distinctly American Federal style.
Architecturally, the State House is important because it helped define the appearance of civic government buildings in the early United States:
symmetrical Federal-style composition,
red brick with white trim,
classical columns and pediments,
and a prominent central dome representing republican government.
Its influence can be seen in later capitol buildings across the country.
