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Today is the 172nd anniversary of Alabama State Government moving into the then new capitol building in Montgomery!
That photo is the earliest one I can find of the Capitol Building, though the clock is already on top at front (a gift from the city of Montgomery in thanks for locating the Capital in the city), and the confederate memorial is already in place at the South side of the new building. (That monument was dedicated in1898.)
The new capitol building was first occupied by the Alabama Legislature on October 1, 1851. The clock over the portico was installed in February 1852. The clock, along with a bell, was purchased by the City of Montgomery and presented to the state in 1852. In proportion to the capitol building, the clock appears as a square white box with black dials and crowned with a gabled roof. The dials are 10 feet (3.0 m) in diameter with 4-foot (1.2 m) minute hands and a 3-foot (0.91 m) hour hands. It has been criticized as architecturally inappropriate on various occasions since its initial installation.
With the secession of Alabama and six other Deep South states and subsequent formation of the Confederacy in February 1861, the building served as its first capitol until May 22, 1861.[1] A commemorative brass marker in the shape of a six-pointed star is set into the marble floor of the front portico at the precise location where Jefferson Davis stood on February 18, 1861, to take his oath of office as the only President of the Confederate States of America.[8]
In 1901 delegates met at the Capitol to draft the Constitution of Alabama. Convention chair John B. Knox said they were there to end "the menace of negro domination."[4] The new constitution enshrined "White Supremacy by Law" and consolidated power at the Capitol and away from local governments.[4]
In 1961 Governor John Patterson flew a seven-starred version of the Stars and Bars over the capitol for several days in celebration of the centennial of the Civil War. His successor, George Wallace, raised the Confederate Battle Flag over the dome on April 25, 1963, as a symbol of defiance to the federal government; this was the date of his meeting with U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to discuss desegregation of the University of Alabama .[12][13]
The flag continued to be flown over the capitol for almost 30 years. Several African American legislators and members of the state chapter of the NAACP were arrested in 1988 after attempting to remove the flag.[14] In 1991 the flag was removed during renovations to the dome, and its return was barred by a 1993 state court decision. It ruled that an 1895 state statute allows only the national and state flags to be flown over the capitol building.[15][16]
The building served as home to the Alabama Legislature until 1985, when it moved to the new Alabama State House. Officially, this move was temporary, since the Alabama Constitution requires that the Legislature meet in the capitol. In 1984, a constitutional amendment was passed that allowed the Legislature to move to another building if the capitol were to be renovated. The renovation started in 1985 and was completed in 1992 by the architecture group Holmes and Holmes. When the capitol was reopened, the Governor of Alabama and numerous other state offices moved back into the building, but the legislature remained at the State House.[17]
(On May 7, 2009, the legislature reconvened in the capitol building for the first time since September 20, 1985, due to flooding in the State House. This required some adapting, as the capitol did not have desks in the House chamber, and those in the Senate chamber were 1861 replicas. Neither chamber has a computerized voting system. The capitol building's heating and air conditioning is supplied from the State House. Because the electricity had been turned off in the State House due to the flooding, there was no air conditioning in the capitol.[18])
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