Alabama State Capitol, Capitol building in Montgomery, Alabama.
The Alabama State Capitol is a Greek Revival building with Beaux-Arts touches, completed in 1851 on Goat Hill. Its front facade is about 350 feet wide and 119 feet tall to the top of the dome lantern. A three-story portico with Tower of the Winds Corinthian columns rises above Georgia marble steps, and the wood and cast-iron dome sits on a ring of Corinthian columns.
Construction was completed in 1851 and the building served shortly afterward in 1861 as the first seat of the Confederacy. The structure survived the Civil War and remained the center of state government through Reconstruction and later decades.
The wide front steps serve as a gathering spot where demonstrators, school groups and visitors meet to discuss Alabama's past. Memorial markers and plaques on the grounds recall key moments of the civil rights movement.
Tours take place on weekdays and provide access to the chambers and exhibition rooms without charge. It helps to wear comfortable shoes for the stairs and longer corridors inside the building.
A brass star set into the floor of the second-floor rotunda marks the exact spot where Jefferson Davis took the oath as president of the Confederate States on February 18, 1861. Visitors often walk past it without noticing.
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