New Capitol Building

Kentucky's Capitol is the fourth permanent building since statehood in 1792. It was built to replace the earlier 1830 capitol, still standing in downtownFrankfort, which had become inadequate to accommodate the growing state government. A long and bitter quarrel among Louisville, Lexington and Frankfort over which city should be Kentucky's Capital finally ended in 1904, when the legislature voted to spend one million dollars for a new capitol to replace the 1830 capitol on the old public square in downtown Frankfort. The architect's design was far too immense for the square, so the present site in south Frankfort was chosen instead. Ground was broken in 1904 and on June 2, 1910 Kentucky's New Capitol was dedicated with imposing ceremonies. The architect was Frank Mills Andrews, a native of Iowa who practiced in Chicago, New York City, Cincinnati and Dayton. Andrews was a distinguished architect. He received the Silver Medal Award from the Royal Society of Arts in 1911 for a paper he presented on "American Architecture" at a meeting of the Society in London. A proponent of the Beaux-Arts style, many striking architectural features and opulent decorative finishes in Kentucky's Capitol illustrate his penchant for classical French interiors.