Jackson’s first state house (at Capitol and President streets) was a simple two-story brick structure. By January 1833, the legislature was confident enough in Jackson’s future as the capital to appropriate $95,000 for a more substantial edifice, specifying that it should have a stone foundation, cypress timbers, and brick walls “covered with fireproof material.” Work began in 1834 on a Gothic Revival design by John Lawrence of Nashville, but the lack of suitable building stone, adequate brickmaking facilities, and qualified craftsmen slowed progress. In late 1835 the governor replaced Lawrence with English immigrant William Nichols (1780–1853), who had experience building capitols in North Carolina and Alabama and a skilled hand in classical design. Although Lawrence had finished the capitol’s foundation and most of the ground floor, Nichols demolished much of this for his Greek Revival design, a refinement of the domed, cruciform plan he had used in his previous capitols.
A semicircular extension of the rear wall balances the front portico to create the cruciform plan. The rusticated ground floor carries the upper two stories, which are finished in scored stucco and lined with pilasters, except on the rear, where the brick wall is exposed. A monumental pedimented portico supported on six fluted Ionic columns faces west, terminating Capitol Street, and side entrances feature Doric columns in antis. Crowning the center of the building is a copper dome resting on a low drum and surmounted by a domed lantern encircled by paneled pilasters. Inside the main entrance, two curved wooden stairs ascend to the principal story, where the rotunda opens to the dome. From here, halls lead to the two chambers, and the Supreme Court occupied the semicircular space at the rear. Minard Lafever’s Beauties of Modern Architecture (1835) influenced such details as columns and door surrounds.
The Old Capitol has experienced long periods of neglect followed by major renovations. In 1870 Joseph Willis replaced the trabeated openings of the ground-floor entrance loggia with round arches, enlarged and remodeled the House chamber, and added iron rods and lintels for structural support. In the 1890s, after several architects declared the building structurally unsound, the legislature authorized a new capitol (JM16); the Old Capitol was abandoned for the new in 1903. In 1909, a hurricane blew off sections of the roof, and the building fell into ruin.
In 1916, Theodore C. Link’s structural report convinced the legislature to preserve and repair the landmark as a state office building. Link’s renovations included adding a structural steel frame, inserting two floors of office space into the House and Senate chambers, removing the original twin curved wooden staircases, and placing a grand classical staircase in the semi-circular space previously occupied by the Supreme Court.
In 1958–1960, when the capitol was restored as the State Historical Museum, Overstreet, Ware and Ware added further structural reinforcement and reversed Link’s other changes. In a mistaken attempt at historical accuracy, this project also removed the exterior stucco, which left the soft red brick underneath exposed to the elements; the bricks leaked and crumbled over the next decades. In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina peeled away the copper roof over the Senate chamber, damaging the interior and its contents. The ensuing renovation also restored the stucco, which was scored to resemble stone blocks as it was originally. The Old Capitol now serves as a museum of the state’s political and civic history.