175th Anniversary! The Capitol Building Burns exactly 175 years ago at this time!

On this date--December 14th--- in 1849, 175 years ago, Alabama's almost brand new Capitol building burned to the ground. The ruins were cleared by March 1850, with a new building soon to follow.

     The new capitol was built on the foundation of the burned building. The cause of the fire was a poorly watched-over fireplace in The House of Representatives! (Fireplaces were the only source of heat in the old building, and there are dozens of them in the "new" building, none used now, of course!)

From The Alabama Pioneers site:

"At one o’clock on that day the House was engaged on the call of the counties for the introduction of bills and petitions. The order was temporarily suspended to allow the consideration and second reading of a series of resolutions, introduced by Mr. Elevens, of Dallas, to abolish the white basis of representation. Mr. Jones offered a motion that 133 copies of the resolution be printed for the use of the House, Pending this question, the roof of the House of Representatives was discovered to be on fire. The House journal of that session does not show that the House adjourned. The reference to the fire in the journal of the House for that day’s session is the following, which follows the proceedings:

Note by the Clerk: Pending the above motion, at one o’clock and fifteen minutes P. M., an alarm of fire was given. The roof of the Capitol was discovered to be in flames, and in three hours from the first alarm the broken walls alone remained. The public records of the various departments were saved and the greater part of the furniture. The fire originated over the Representative Hall.”

The present capitol building was built on the same foundation that was constructed for that first building.

Early photo of current building

Below is a drawing of the original building...the one that burned:

Was it a coincidence that the fire started as the House was debating a measure to delete the racial basis for representation? I can find no evidence of the fire being anything other than a fireplace accident, though it IS suspicious!

The first Alabama Capitol building in Montgomery.