Kentucky's State Capitols
- Kentucky's First Unofficial Capitol
- Kentucky's First Official Capitol
- Kentucky's Capitol Buildings: 1793-1830
- Kentucky's "Old Capitol"
- Kentucky's Current Capitol Building
Kentucky's First Unofficial Capitol
In 1767 Daniel Boone traveled into the edge of Kentucky and camped for the winter at Salt Spring near Prestonsburg. John Finley persuaded him to go farther west to discover the rivers and wilderness of the great "Meadow Land." On May 1, 1769, Boone, Finley, and four other men, started out. They passed through the Cumberland Gap and explored Kentucky as far west as the Falls of the Ohio, where Louisville is now. There was another visit to Kentucky in 1773, and in 1774 he built a cabin at Harrodsburg. On this trip, Boone followed the Kentucky River to its mouth.
In the 1775, Daniel Boone was hired by the Transylvania Company to speculate lands between the Kentucky River, Cumberland Mountains and Cumberland River. Boone, seasoned surveyor and trail blazer, recruited thirty men to accompany him, and the group began to clear the Wilderness Road, ending their journey at a settlement at Boonesborough.
It was after the founding of Boonesborough, that delegates from various settlements, such as Ford Harrod, Boiling Springs and St. Asaph, met as Kentucky's first Legislature at the commonwealth's first unofficial "capitol" - a stately elm tree, whose trunk was four feet in diameter and which "extends its large branches on every side at such equal distance as to form the most beautiful tree the imagination can suggest.. [it] is to be our church, council chamber, etc."*
Even though the Transylvania Company had signed the Treaty of Watauga with the Indians to acquire the area known as Kentucky, the Virginia Legislature declared the treaty null and void. In 1780, the Commonwealth returned to the jurisdiction of Virginia; the ever-expanding Kentucky County was divided into three counties: Lincoln, Jefferson and Fayette. A log house located in Crow's Station was chosen to be the seat of the court system. It was around this log house that the city of Danville originated.
Kentucky's First Official Capitol
As Indian threats increased and Virginia failed to fully defend settlements in western parts of the state, a movement of separate statehood was made to the Virginia Legislature. Nine appeals later, in June of 1792, independence was granted to the new state of Kentucky. At the time of statehood, Kentucky had expanded into nine counties. A log cabin in Lexington was chosen as the first official seat of government and capitol of the state. It was located between the streets of Mill and Broadway. Here the delegates, during the 1792 Legislative session, voted to place the permanent Capital of the state in the sleepy port city of Frankfort, situated in the central section of the state, beside the Kentucky River.
Kentucky's Capitol Buildings (1793-1830)
During the years 1793 through 1825, Kentucky had several capitol buildings:
- 1793 - The Kentucky Legislature met in the newly established capital
city of Frankfort, in a frame house on Wapping Street.
- 1794-1813 - The third state house, the first permanent one erected
in Frankfort was built by the government at a cost of $3,500 with the
remainder subsidized by Frankfort citizens. Legislators described the
building as "stone, very rough and unsightly, three stories high,
with a cupola rising from the center of the square roof." **
It was destroyed by fire November 25, 1813.
- 1814-1824 - The fourth Capitol was a temporary building rented by
the State until the completion of a new State House.
- 1824 - The fifth State House was built at a cost of $40,000 in Frankfort, and was destroyed by fire in 1824. The two-story brick building had only two rooms on the first floor; these were used by the Legislature. The courts occupied the second floor. Two wings were detached from the main building and were used by State officials' offices. Although the main section and west wings of the building were destroyed by fire, the east wing still stands.
- 1824-1830 - The sixth State House was again was located in temporary
headquarters- the Senate meeting in a seminary and the House of Representatives
meeting in a meeting hall. The meeting hall was destroyed by fire in
1825. Government meetings were then relocated to a Methodist Church,
for which the State voluntarily paid rent.
Works Cited
*From the diaries of Colonel Richard Henderson, head of the Transylvania Co.
** Nourse, Annie. "Many Buildings Have Served Kentucky as Capitol Through the Years." D.A.R. Souvenir Magazine, Oct. 23, 1908. Reprinted by The Kentucky Explorer, Feb. 1992. pg. 59.