Completed on January 11, 1798, the Massachussets State House was widely praised as one of the most magnificent buildings in the country. 

Paul Revere overlaid the building's original wooden dome with copper. In 1874 the dome was again overlaid, with 23 karat gold leaf.

The Massachusetts State House is a site on the Freedom Trail.



ABOUT THE HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHS "Historians call it the ‘Boston Granite Style.’ It must have been the most muscle-bound architecture ever invented in this country. Huge blocks of granite, often left deliberately rough, were piled into massive, fortress-like structures – warehouses, wharves, public works. What was being expressed? Surely the strength, wealth, and durability of Boston’s merchants and sea captains, the people who created the Granite Style in the decades before the Civil War. Durable, however, is something the Granite Style seldom proved to be. One of its monuments was the old Beacon Hill Reservoir, which stood near the crown of Beacon Hill. Charles A. Cummings, the designer of the New Old South Church, in Copley Square, called it the best piece of architecture in Boston. Yet the Reservoir survived only 40 years, from 1849 to 1888, when it was torn down- no small feat in itself, surely – to make room for the Annex to the State House. The old photo shows the Reservoir around 1868, and the new one shows the Annex today. In both views, we’re looking north along Hancock Street. Water was pumped 15 miles, from Natick’s Lake Cochituate, to the top of the Reservoir. This was a huge tub of water lifted high on massive arches as a waiter might lift a tray – but this tray was nearly 16 feet deep and about 200 feet long on each side. No one is quite sure who designed the Reservoir, although an engineer named W. S. Whitwell sometimes gets credit." -Robert Campbell and Peter Vanderwarker, "CITYSCAPES - Beacon Hill Reservoir," Boston Globe, 28 November 1993

Massachusetts State House

Jay Wickersham tells the story of the first planned residential development in America: Beacon Hill. The podcast includes the history of local families (Hancock and Copley) and takes you on a journey of design (State House by Charles Bulfinch) and real estate development.   

Massachusetts State House

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