Many buildings in downtown Baton Rouge naturally catch a visitor’s eye: the state capitol building, both governor’s mansions and the Shaw Center for the Arts, which boasts a fantastic sushi restaurant on the roof.No matter how nice these buildings are, I personally find the Old State Capitol to be the most interesting.Initially, Baton Rouge wasn’t the capitol of this great state. It wasn’t until 1847 when a plot of land overlooking the Mississippi River was donated for a new statehouse that the capitol moved from New Orleans to Baton Rouge.During this time James Harrison Dakin was commissioned to design the new building.Dakin was a New York native with a thriving business in New Orleans. He personally described the new building as “Castellated Gothic” in large part because of the cast-iron decoration of its crenellated battlements and turrets. Construction began in 1847 and was finished in 1852, the year Dakin died. The walls were actually covered with lime mortar plaster and resembles massive stones.For the next decade the new building served the people of Louisiana as the seat of state power.This all ended in 1862 when Union forces captured Baton Rouge during the Civil War. Legislators abandoned the building where they had voted for secession just the year before. Once Union forces captured the building, it lasted less than a year as a garrison and prison. Troops accidentally started a fire Dec. 28, 1862 which destroyed the interior of the building.Despite the rich history this building provides our city, some considered this fire a blessing.Believe it or not, famed author Mark Twain once described our blessed Old State Capitol as the ugliest building on the Mississippi River. He also said this “little sham castle” would not have been possible if Sir Walter Scott had not run people mad with his medieval romances a few generations before it was built.  Twain felt so strongly about this building that he offered one of the most eloquent condemnations ever written.”It is pathetic enough, that a whitewashed castle, with turrets and things — materials all ungenuine within and without, pretending to be what they are not — should ever have been built in this otherwise honorable place; but it is much more pathetic to see this architectural falsehood undergoing restoration and perpetuation in our day, when it would have been so to let dynamite finish what a charitable fire began, and then devote this restoration-money to the building of something genuine.”Despite Twain’s disapproval, the capitol was indeed rebuilt.Architect and engineer William A. Feret completely reconstructed the destroyed interior in 1882 and also installed the signature spiraling staircase. Remembering the former darkness of the building, he also took steps to make the newly designed building better lit. Feret included a stained glass lantern, or dome, to emit more light. A single central pier was included to support the dome, which looks like a massive umbrella in the old building.The seat of state power returned to the Old State Capitol on March 1, 1862, and remained there until 1932.As was frequently the case with Gov. Huey Long, the old statehouse was not adequately grandiose for his temperament. The building was abandoned in favor of the new building that houses the Louisiana legislature todayAccording the Secretary of State’s Web site, the building became the local headquarters for the Works Progress Administration in 1936, and was abandoned until 1991.  Concerned citizens and politicians saved the old building from demolition. They began a massive reconstruction and renovation process for its restorationRenovations took place in three distinct parts. Phase I of the project renovated the interior of the building so it could be reopened to the public. Phase II, which was completed in 2006, restored the exterior of the building. Phase III was designed to restore the cast-iron fence surrounding the building. One of the most historically significant aspects of the former statehouse, the 1,575-foot fence, is a rare artifact from Baton Rouge’s antebellum past.Today the building houses the State of Louisiana’s Museum of Political History.  Touring the museum is free and well worth your time. With interactive displays, the museum explores the people who made Louisiana into the great state we call home. It also displays amazing artifacts from our state’s history, including the gun used to kill Huey P. Long. The Old State Capitol is an amazing and wonderful piece of Louisiana history.While Twain thought it was ugly, it is a rare and wonderful artifact linking Louisiana to its past — and we wouldn’t be the same without it.—-Contact Matt McEntire at [email protected]