USA > Tennessee > Davidson County > Nashville > Polk's Nashville (Davidson county, Tenn.) city directory 1865 > Part 8
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The ground was begun to be cleared off of the site about the 1st of January, 1845, foundations dug, and nearly finished by the 4th of
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July, on which day the corner-stone was laid in the south-east corner of the building, with imposing ceremonies, just fourteen years and seven months ago. An eloquent oration was delivered on the occa- sion, by the Hon. Edwin Ewing. The building was carried on regu- larly and steadily, without error or interruption, till the time of Mr. Strickland's death, April 7th, 1854. His funeral ceremonies were conducted in the Representative Hall, and he was entombed in a recess in the wall of the north basement portico, after having lived to see the principal part of the work finished. There are but few instances in which so noble a work has served as the tomb and monument of its designer. Sir Christopher Wren, architect of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, and the architect of the Cologne Cathedral, are the noted examples of the sort.
After the death of Mr. Strickland, the work was for several years carried on by his son, Mr. F. W. Strickland.
The last stone of the tower was laid July 21st, 1855, and the last stone of the lower terrace, March 19th, 1859, which completed the stone work.
The building was first occupied by the Legislature October 3d, 1853. The following table shows the cost of the building each year since its commencement :
APPROPRIATIONS TO BUILDING FUND.
Date.
Appro- priat'ns
Expendi- tore on Building.
Purchase ofgrounds
Decora- tions.
Peniten- tiary.
Sundries.
appro- priation of each year.
January 30, 1844. *January 5, 1846. January 5. 1846 ...
$10,000'
32,000
$10,000
8,500
8,500
+January 24, 1848
100,000
50,500
February 9, 1850.
150,000
150,500
January 31, 1852.
250,000
300,500
February 28, 1854
200,000
550,500
February 28, 1856
150,000 To Oct. '58 To Oct. '57
Oct. '57
Oct. 1, '57 Oct. 1. '57
750,500
776,604 99
42,150
23,701 44
41,222 30
16,821 27
1844 to 1859 ..
$900,500 776,604 99.
$50,650 $23,701 44 $41,222 30| 16,821 27
$900,500
* $16,000 per annum for two years.
$ $50,000 per annum for two years.
A concise statement of the site, plan and structure of the building is indispensable to the formation, by distant readers, of a correct idea of its appearance, though a verbal description, even with the help of the picture, must, of course, be very imperfect. The State-house is a parallelogram, 112 by 239 feet, with an elevation 64 feet 8 inches above an elevated terrace walk which surrounds it, or 74 feet 8 inches above the ground. Rising through the center of the roof is the tower,
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Total
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BUSINESS DIRECTORY.
which is 36 feet square, and 80 feet high. The main idea of the ele- vation of the building is a Greek Ionic temple, erected upon a rustic basement, which, in its turn, rests (in appearance) upon a terraced pavement. The building has four fronts-on every side-north, south, east and west, each side graced with a noble portico. The end porticoes-north and south-are each composed of 8 magnificent Ionic columns. The side porticoes-east and west-are composed each of 6 columns. These columns, 28 in all, are each 4 feet in diameter, by 33 feet high, and rest upon the entablature of the basement. This entablature is supported by a rusticated pier rising through the base- ment story, under each column of the portico above. The end porticoes are capped by an entablature, which is continued around the building. Above this entablature is a heavy pediment. The side porticoes are capped by the entablature and double blocking courses.
The building inside is divided into three stories-the crypt, or cellar; the basement, or first floor; and the main, or second floor. The crypt is used for the State Arsenal, and for furnaces and the like. The basement has a passage or hall through the center of the building 204 feet long by 24 feet wide, crossed transversely by three halls, the main one 100 feet long by 30 feet 3 inches ; hight of this floor, 16 feet 4 inches. This floor is divided in Supreme and Federal Court rooms, each 35 feet by 52 feet 8 inches, and offices for the Governor, the Comptroller, the Treasurer, the Secretary of State, Register of Lands, Superintendent of Weights and Measures, and Keeper of Public Arms, and Clerks of the Supreme and Federal Courts (each of which is 16 by 34 feet), and by the Archive-room, which is 34 feet square. This room is fitted up in a handsome manner, with book and paper cases made of white walnut, and the room otherwise handsomely furnished. The Court-rooms are also well furnished-the Supreme Court-room in a very excellent manner. The main floor is reached by a handsome flight of 24 steps, 11 feet wide, at the west end of the basement transverse hall. The balusters, or hand railing of this stair- way, are of East Tennessee marble, a most beautiful colored mottled marble, very hard, and taking a high polish. The transverse hall of this upper is the same as that of the lower floor in dimensions. The longitudinal hall of this floor is 128 feet 2 inches long, by 24 feet 2 inches wide, the side passages as below. The hight of these halls, and of all of the rooms of this floor, is 39 feet. The rooms are, the Representative Hall, 61 by 97 feet ; Senate Chamber, 34 feet 8 inches by 70 feet 3 inches; Library Rooms, respectively 16 by 34, and 34 7
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by 34 feet, and Committee Rooms, each 16 feet 8 inches by 16 feet S inches.
The Representative Hall is a truly noble apartment, and an honor to the genius and taste of the architect. The main floor, 61 by 97 feet, is flanked on the east and west sides by eight committee rooms, 16 feet 8 inches by 16 feet 8 inches. Above these rooms, on each side, are the public galleries. The front of each of these galleries is graced by eight coupled columns, 21 feet 11 inches high, and 2 feet 10 inches in diameter, of the Composite order, and fluted. The shaft of each column is of one block of stone, and capped by exceedingly graceful and elaborate capitals, the device of the architect. This room is well furnished, and windows curtained. The Speaker's stand and screen wall is composed of red, white and black Tennessee marble. The chandelier is from the establishment of Cornelius & Baker, of Philadelphia, and is one of the largest, most elaborate, graceful and costly chandeliers in the Union, and cost $1,500. The chief points in the design are representations of the natural, animal and vegetable productions of the State, such as cotton, corn and tobacco. There are also six buffaloes, extremely well executed, and a number of Indian warriors, each nearly two feet high, and of most excellent proportions. The burners are 48 in number.
The Senate Chamber, 34 by 70 feet, is also well fitted up, and is surrounded on three sides, north, west and south, by a gallery for the public, 10 feet 9 inches wide, supported by 12 smooth Ionic columns of red Tennessee marble columns, each 10 feet 3 inches high, and 3 feet 52 inches in circumference, with black marble bases, and archi- trave of red and white marble. This room has also a chandelier, similar in design to that of the Representative Hall, though smaller, and of probably better proportions.
There are 34 chandeliers, 11 brackets, 12 pendants, and 8 gasela- bras in the whole building, with 420 burners, with 1 chandelier of 40 burners, 3 of 30 burners, 1 of 18, 1 of 15, 2 of 12, 6 of 8, 2 of 6, 18 of 4, etc. All of these elegant gas fixtures were made by Messrs. Cornelius & Baker, of Philadelphia. ;
Above the center of the building, and through the roof, rises the tower, supported by four massive piers rising from the ground, 10 by 12 feet. The design of this structure (the tower), for it is a noble work in itself, is a modified and improved reproduction of the " Choragic Monument of Lysicrates," or, as it is sometimes called, the "Lantern of Demosthenes," erected in Athens, about 325 B. C., and
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still standing. The tower is composed of a square rustic base, 36 feet square and 42 feet high, with a window in each front. Above this the lantern, or round part of the tower, rises, 26 feet 8 inches in diam- eter, by 37 feet high. It consists of a circular cell, with 8 most beau- tiful three-quarter fluted Corinthian columns, attached around its outer circumference, with alternate blank, and pierced windows between each two columns, in each of the two stories of the cell. The col- umns have each a very elaborate and beautifully wrought capital of the purest Corinthian style, and above all, a heavy entablature. The column shafts are 2 feet 6 inches in diameter, by 27 fect 8 inches high, and capital 4 feet high. The roof and iron finial ornament are, to- gether, 34 feet high above the last stone of the tower, making the whole hight of the edifice above the ground 206 feet 7 inches, or over 400 feet above low water in the Cumberland river, near by. The fol- lowing table exhibits some of the principal dimensions of the building at a glance :
Length
FEET. IN·
Length, including terrace at each end, 17 feet wide, and projecting steps, 16 239
3
feet 10 inches. 306
8
Width at each end
112
5
Width at each end, including terrace, 17 feet wide at each side.
142
5
Width at the center, including side porticoes, each 13 feet wide
138
5
HIGHT OF BUILDING.
Lower terrace, or pavement.
2
0
Upper terrace.
S
From npper terrace to top of entablature of main building.
64
End pediments, or of the roof.
18
Stonework of tower above roof of main building ..
79
Iron finial ornament, together with the tower roof.
34
-
Total hight ...
206
980207 0 7
Some of the more minute details should be mentioned. The roof of the building is constructed of rafters, composed of Cumberland river wrought-iron ties and braces, trussed in sections and joined together by cast-iron plates and knees, by wrought-iron purlins-the greatest span of these wrought-iron rafters is over the Representa- tives' Hall, a distance of sixty-five feet. The whole is sheathed and covered with copper. The water is conveyed from the roof by cast- iron gutter pipes, eight inches in diameter, inserted in the walls, and is carried to basins under the terrace pavements all around the build- ing. This water will be eventually used to irrigate the grounds when completed.
There has been placed, on each step buttress, on each front of
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the building, an ornamental iron lamp post, sixteen in number, made at the establishment of Wood, Perot & Co., Philadelphia, which are certainly the most elaborate and costly objects of the kind which have yet been put up in iron in this country. Each post consists of a composite fluted column, resting on a heavy base, and supporting above a large glass lamp, with gas burners. Around this column, and standing on the base, are three youthful figures, nearly life size, representing Morning and Night (female figures half draped), and Noon, a youth holding a torch. A happy conception of the artist, and a credit to him, keeping in view the price paid for them, and the time to do them in. There are 24 of these figures altogether.
The walls of the building for the foundation are seven feet thick; the upper walls four and a half feet; the inner walls are respectively three feet, two feet eighteen inches, and twelve inches. All of the inside walls are laid with rubbed stone; the terraces, pavements, and the round part of the tower, square droved or chiseled; outer walls of first story and square part of tower, rusticated work and tooled. The walls around the grounds will be drafted bush hammered.
The material of the building is of a stratified limestone, full of fossils, some of it very hard, of a slightly bluish-gray tint, with cloud- like markings. It is found within a half mile west of the building, in a quarry opened by the State, on the grounds of Mr. Samuel Watkins. Stones have been quarried from this place weighing, in their rough state, fifteen or twenty tuns, and thirty or more feet long. One of the terrace stones of the building is eight feet three inches by fourteen feet, and the cap stones of the terrace step buttresses are five feet ten inches by sixteen feet eleven inches, the heaviest weighing probably eight or ten tuns. The stone may be considered, both as to durability and beauty of appearance, when worked, equal, if not superior, to any building stone in the Union. The building, or parts of it, have now stood the test of the storms of over fourteen years, and is still without flaw, though our climate is exceedingly changea- ble, and very destructive to building stone when much exposed, as some other of our public edifices, built by inferior limestone, will show. The doors, and window frames, and sash arc all of oak. The stairways throughout are hanging, and of stone, except the tower and library steps, which are of iron. Nearly the whole of this work on the building was done by Tennessee mechanics and artisans. The stone cutting and setting are most admirably done, and is not excelled, or hardly equaled, in the United States or Europe.
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BUSINESS DIRECTORY.
There yet remains work enough to be done on the building and grounds to exercise the liberality of future Legislatures. The grounds, which are uninclosed, are in a most chaotic state, a mere mass of huge broken rocks, together with various dilapidated out- houses, altogether a disgrace to the State and city. If once com- pleted, according to the original plan of the architect, and in a manner worthy of the building, the Capitol of Tennessee, with its grounds, will probably be the completest establishment of the kind in America. It is devoutly hoped that the work will be carried forward without delay, and in a spirit of the largest and most enlightened liberality.
RAILROADS.
The railway system of the United States commenced about the year 1830. In that year a road four miles long was built, over which to transport ice, from a small lake near Boston to the sea. South Carolina, in the same year, began the Charleston and Augusta road, 135 miles long, and finished it in 1833.
In 1831 a railroad spirit began to pervade the whole country, and then the Legislature of Tennessee incorporated a number of railroad companies ; but owing to the want of the proper enthusiasm among our people, all these projects slept. This state of public feeling was mainly attributable, we suppose, to the severe money revulsion of 1836-7, which paralyzed, for a time, the efforts of commerce. At any rate, it so effected the prospects of the country, that the projected railroads were abandoned, and the work was not renewed with effect until 1845, when the Georgia roads, working their way northward, approached Chattanooga. The construction of these roads spurred our people to vigorous action, and the charters of the old enterprises of 1831 were revived. The Nashville and Chattanooga, the pioneer road of the State, was then chartered, and some of the oldest and ablest heads of this city labored zealously for its accomplishment. Among those foremost in the work, were John M. Bass, John M. Hill, Francis B. Fogg, Andrew Ewing, A. O. P. Nicholson, V. K. Stevenson, John Bell, Willoughby Williams, William Nichol, S. D. Morgan, Joseph T. Elliston and John Shelby. The vigilant and powerful Press, too, maintained the enterprise. But chiefly is the country indebted for the successful and speedy accomplishment of this important work, to the sleepless energy of its present President, V. K. Stevenson. IIe not only aroused, by his ingenuous eloquence, the people along the line to the great necessity of this improvement,
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SINGLETON'S NASHVILLE
but, together with John C. Calhoun and other energetic spirits of South Carolina and Georgia, convinced their people of its importance, and secured their aid in constructing it. Mr. Stevenson's letter of December 12th, 1846, to Mr. Calhoun on the necessity for the road, was a forcible appeal for it. We would be glad, did our space admit its insertion here, as showing the state of the trade of Nashville then, and for the benefit of the comparison that could be drawn from it, between the facilities of trade enjoyed over the Chattanooga road, and those had by the old dirt roads, or even by our matchless macad- amized turnpikes.
In the summer and autumn of 1846, John Edgar Thomson, the celebrated engineer, with a corps of assistants, surveyed a line for this road, and reported so favorably of its practicability and probable costs, that his survey was adopted. From the concluding paragraph of his report, we quote the following : " I will add that the consid- erations in favor of this work are so strong, 'its value to the farmer, mechanic and traveler so clear,' and its importance to the continued prosperity of your city so manifest, that I can not for a moment believe that there will be lacking the enterprise or means necessary to carry it through when the subject shall be properly brought before the citizens of Tennessee. Its construction need not be a drain upon their resources. A proper application of their time and labor, will enable them to complete most of the graduation and superstructure, without materially interfering with its ordinary operation, and the iron may be made within the State, upon more favorable terms than it can be procured from any other quarter, leaving but little of its cost to be expended for foreign labor or materials, and making its construc- tion add to the activity of the population and the carly development of the resources of the State."
Of his reception and the hospitality of our people, he further says : "I take this occasion to acknowledge the hospitalities to myself and assistants by the citizens of Tennessee, upon the line of our survey. It has been my fortune to have been professionally engaged in nearly every section of the Union, but I have nowhere met with so cordial a welcome, or observed such strong feelings manifested in favor of any enterprise, as by the people generally for this." Mr. Thomson, says a record of that time, charged nothing for his services upon this survey.
In the summer of 1847, a proposition was made for the city of Nashville to take $500,000 worth of stock in the Nashville and
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BUSINESS DIRECTORY.
Chattanooga Railroad Company, and the proposal was, by an order of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, laid before the citizens to be tested by the popular vote. The vote was taken on the 3d day of July, and the result showed a large majority in favor of taking the stock. To pay this stock subscription, the bonds of the city were issued in the year 1849. In the mean time, however, work on the road had commenced, and it was pushed forward with great energy, even in the face of the opposition of some of our citizens ; who, believing that the Legislature had no power to authorize the city to issue bonds for this road, took legal steps to restrain their issuance. The suit, after having been carried to the Supreme Court, was there decided favorably to the subscription. The indefatigable president of the company was, during this time, canvassing the line of the road for aid, and the records show that his duties were arduous indeed. Notwith - standing the opposition it met, the road went rapidly forward toward completion, and, except a few mountain sections where the earth frequently slid upon the track, was completed in December, 1853; having been entirely constructed in the short space of five years. If we consider how this road passed for a great part of its length what was then a wilderness, through solid mountains, and over and through deep and dizzy ravines, it must be regarded a great work.
If we were asked what have been its advantages, we should point to the magnificent store-houses that have arisen magic-like upon our streets, and to their business, which, compared with that done over the old dirt road, or even over the macadamized road, is as 100 to 1000. We should ask ourselves if we could now do without it?
We have said thus much of this road, because it was the pioneer railway improvement in our State, and upon it was inaugurated the internal improvement system so liberally endowed by our State Legis- latures of 1851-2 and 1853-4. In those years many of our main lines of railroad received the bountiful aid of the State, and are to- day mighty monuments of the wisdom that placed them beyond per- adventure. Tennessee, and Nashville, too, may feel proud of the active part and interest they have in these great blessings of communication, these correctives of ignorance, which are building up and improving our humanity.
Nashville having now become aroused to the importance of railway communication, urged upon the county the necessity of becoming interested in other lines, and of aiding them. So in March, 1853, the city and county voted a subscription of $1,000,000 to four roads,
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TUNNELL, Booksellers, Stationers and News Dealers, 40 North Cherry Street.
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as follows : to the Tennessee and Alabama, $200,000; to the Louis- ville and Nashville, $300,000; to the Henderson and Nashville, $200,000, and to the Nashville and North-western, $300,000; all which roads were put under construction and have gone forward with mixed speed toward completion, as the difficulties opposed or the energy enlisted allowed.
The Tennessee and Alabama, the favorite company of our people, judging from the vote it received at the election above mentioned, chartered to form a rail connection direct with the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Road, asked authority of the Legislature of 1857-8 to stop their road at Mount Pleasant, 572 miles-the company there agreeing to let go the State aid of about $100,000. This action of the company was regretted by many of our citizens, though the stockholders and the county court both agreed to the stoppage. The Legislature, at its recent session, reinstated this road upon its original plan, by rechartering the Southern Railroad Com- pany, which is designed to connect the Tennessee and Alabama with the Memphis and Charleston, and the Mobile and Ohio roads, by means of a branch road from its intended southern terminus at some point on the Tennessee river, to Iukah, Mississippi. The Tennessee and Alabama road has a valuable ally in the Central Southern, which connects it at Decatur, Alabama, with the Memphis and Charleston road, and will eventually with the Alabama Central and Tennessee, a road in progress from Selma northward. The trade coming to this city over the Tennessee and Alabama, and the Central Southern, grows apace, and when these connections are completed our merchants will have cause to rejoice at the bulk of their business.
The Louisville and Nashville road was commenced here in the spring of 1853, and much work was done by the winter, when, by reason of financial difficulties, the work stopped. It was commenced again with vigor in 1855, and was not again stopped until completed, in October, 1859. No road connecting with this city has had more varied diffi- culties than it during its construction; and considering those difficul- ties it has been built in a remarkably short time-say five years at most. Our citizens regard this road of chief value and importance to this place, opening up a new route to the Eastern and Western States and cities. The management of this road are striving to make it, as they believe it will be, the first road in the South; and if we consider its connections, we will be forced to fall into their belief. Its connections at this place diverge to all points; but in time its
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West Fourth Street, Cincinnati, O. See Advertisement.
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BUSINESS DIRECTORY.
principal one will be the Tennessee and Alabama road. At present the care and anxiety of its directory seem to be centered upon the branch road from Bowling Green to Memphis. This will undoubtedly be, for some years, its chief feeder from the South. The Louisville and Nashville road offers the cheapest route to our merchants for their costly goods from the East-saving to them the insurance paid by water transportation.
Depot buildings, for this road, are to be commenced here shortly, which will reach from Front to Market, and thence to College street. The passenger building is to cost $65,000, extending from Market to College street.
The Henderson and Nashville road, though little has been said about it, will in a few years lay at the doors of our trade a more varied freight, perhaps, than any other coming into this place. Its connection, at Evansville, Indiana, with the North-western roads, will open a great grain market to us; and the proximity of the track to inexhaustible coal fields will, we are assured, bring coal here at cheaper rates than ever known to us before. A connection is proposed for this road from Hopkinsville to St. Louis, which, if construeted, will open, between the North-west and the South-east, almost an air line through Nashville. It passes through the richest tobacco region of Kentucky and the productive Red River Valley, whose produce have made Clarksville what she is-one of the principal tobacco markets of this Union. The construction of this road in Kentucky, has been retarded by circumstances over which the management has no control- want of proper enterprise among the people along its line. But they are awakening to their interests, and the road bids fair to reach an early completion. The military authorities have now possession of this road, and run trains through to Clarksville.
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