Old State Capitol

Delve into the politics and everyday life of the tumultuous 19th-century by touring this National Historic Landmark that served as Kentucky’s capitol from 1830 to 1910.

In the galleries of this stately building, witness the changing tastes of 19th-century Kentuckians in "Great Revivals: Kentucky Decorative Arts Treasures," an exhibition that highlights five stylistic design eras and the commonwealth's treasures from those times. Estimated time: 1 hour.

Open a fascinating window into the past in “The Frankfort Public Square: A Place for History,” a small exhibit of photographs and maps. Learn the story of the three Kentucky capitols that have stood where the Old State Capitol is located through artifacts recovered during archaeological digs. Estimated time: 15 minutes.

Visit the re-created 1850s State Law Library in its original site or debate legislative matters in the re-created 1850s House and Senate chambers. Estimated time of historical building tour: 1 hour.


History of the Building
Gideon Shryock, an early Kentucky architect, designed the Old State Capitol when he was only 25 years old. Shryock used architectural symbolism to connect the vigorous frontier state of Kentucky with the ideals of classical Greek democracy. The building, which introduced Greek-Revival architecture to the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains, is widely recognized as a beautiful masterpiece of 19th-century American architecture and boasts a self-supporting stone stairway, a light-flooded rotunda and dual legislative chambers.

This was the only pro-Union state capitol occupied by the Confederate army during the Civil War. Plans to swear in a Confederate governor and establish a Confederate state government were ruined by the approach of the Union army just days before the Battle of Perryville in 1862.

In the aftermath of the bitterly contested gubernatorial election in 1899, the state legislature met here in 1900 to decide the winner. An assassin, hiding in an office in the Old Capitol Annex next door, shot the Democratic claimant, William Goebel, as he approached the Capitol. Armed citizens and State Guard soldiers occupied the grounds, and here for a time Kentuckians threatened to fight their own miniature civil war. A plaque marks the site outside the building where Goebel, the only governor in United States history to be assassinated while in office, fell.

Replaced by the New Capitol in South Frankfort early in the 20th-century, the building has served as the home of the Kentucky Historical Society since 1920. The subject of extensive restoration work since the early 1970s, the Old State Capitol looks today much as it did in the 1850s.


Old State Capitol
300 West Broadway
Frankfort, KY 40601



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