" -Thomas Jefferson was minister to France when in the spring of 1785. He received a request from colleagues in Richmond to draw up plans for a capitol building. The Virginia assembly had been meeting in a converted tobacco warehouse since the Commonwealth had shifted operations from Williamsburg to Richmond in 1780. Jefferson identified a suitable prototype, a Roman temple from the reign of Augustus in the first century A.D. The Maison Carree, it means France. Jefferson blew up the scale and added windows. He changed the order from Corinthian to Doric. Knowing there were no American craftsman with the training to carve the more decorated form. Jefferson send a plaster model back to the United States and building commenced. The corner stone was laid in the autumn of 1785 and the first session with the assembly was called to order there years later. The building wasn't yet complete however, as the portico was erected in 1790. The capitals in Flints came later too and the walls weren't stuccoed until 1800. The building set on a rising slope in the heart of capitol square is the first neoclassical public building in America."

" -This marvelous statue of George Washington, the father of our country has been in this spot in the heart of the capitol building since 1796 and there's a very wonderful story associated with it. Charlotte Trotzel has been a guide here in the capitol building for 25 years, right?"

" -Yes."

" -And I know you gonna tell us more about the statue but I'm fascinated by domes and this is an internal dome. Jefferson loved to design buildings with the dome. Here, in the capitol building itself has an A-frame roof and when you look at it"

" - from the outside, it's very much like a classical temple, but this internal dome with its neoclassical decorations and the triangular corner decorations is really quite special, especially with the skylight up above it."

" -Well, this was [unk] is a great war hero."

" -Uh huh."

" -And well, Mr. Jefferson was in France planning our building."

" - He was asked to find one of the finest sculptors in Europe which was Jean-Antoine Houdon."

" -Houdon, right."

" -And he liked to see the people he did. He actually came to Mount Vernon and did all the preliminary work right then."

" -So, he crossed the Atlantic in order to meet Washington."

" -Yes."

" -Before making the sculpture."

" -Absolutely. And, they measured his body very carefully and recorded it and then they made a mask."

" -A life mask."

" -Yes."

" -And of course they talked about what he would wear"

" - and what would go on the statue just for symbolism is concerned."

" -Uh uh."

" -And when it was completed, it is exactly the way General Washington looked when he was 53 year old."

" -How tall was he?"

" -Very tall, 6 feet 2 1/2. He weighs about 210 and he was 53 when he passed away."

" -Now, this wonderful building includes the original two chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate."

" -Yes."

" -But they haven't been used in a while, right?"

" -No. We have the old senate which is to the left as you enter the building."

" -The old House of Delegates is in the rear of the building."

" -In the rear?"

" -Yes."

" -And this is the room where Robert E. Lee accepted the command of the Army during the Civil War."

" -The Virginia Army."

" -The Virginia Army, that's right."

" -And it's also what Aaron Burr was trial for high treason against the government."

" -So, it's a"

" -Back in 1870."

" -Very historic room. But since the turn of the 20th century, the Virginia legislature has had the new rooms that were added."

" -Yes. In 1906,"

" -The Senate moved to the West wing and the House of Delegates to the East wing."

" -One thing I enjoyed seeing is the original laptop writing desk from the Jeffersonian era and then in the new house chambers, all the new laptop computers that are being installed."

" -Absolutely."

" -brings the facility into the 21st century."