Early History of the Capitol
In those «lays the building was useil for
costume balls, amateur theatricals, «lances
an«! various other festive occasions, as w«‘ll
as for the transacti«Mi of state business.
By EARL DEAN
Here’s how the predecessor of the present structure looked.
This was after considerable remodeling had been done to
the original capitol.
IT’S doubtful if any
other public build¬
ing ever served as
many different pur¬
poses as did North
Carolina’s first state
capitol, at Raleigh. It
was a big barn of a
building which loomed
up formidably among
the primeval oaks at
the head of Fayette¬
ville Street 155 years
ago. Its dingy reddish
walls frequently rang
all day long and far
into the night with
shouts, songs and cries.
But it was the people’s
house, and in those
days the people of
North Carolina were
allowed to use it
pretty much as they
pleased.
The great Methodist
missionary, Bishop
Francis Asbury, re¬
corded in his Journal
that on March 6, 1800,
a crowd of more than 2,000 people
braved inclement weather to hear
him preach there. And the first
Presbyterian congregation organ¬
ized in Raleigh in 1806 held serv¬
ices there regularly for many years.
Fourth of July celebrations, at
which dozens of toasts were drunk
to life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness in the Old North State
were regular occurrences there, as
were dances, costume balls, ama¬
teur theatricals and meetings and
gatherings of all kinds.
Even parties celebrating the ap¬
proaching weddings of Raleigh
belles were held in the old state
house. One such party was in prog¬
ress there on the December night
in 1808 when Andrew Johnson was
born. Pretty Peggy Casso, the
daughter of Peter Casso, proprie¬
tor of an inn on Fayetteville Street
located almost in the shadow of
the first state capitol, had to hurry
home and name the new-born baby
THE STATE. June 4. 1949
boy for his proud parents, Jacob
and Polly Johnson, who lived in a
tiny house at the rear of Peter
Casso’s Inn.
And, of course, the General As¬
sembly met there too, for the first
time in 1794, holding some pretty
hectic sessions, from all accounts,
even if they didn’t last quite as
long as they do today. Governor’s
fared worse in those days, how¬
ever, for Governor Richard Dobbs
Spaight, of New Bern, was killed
in a duel with John Stanly, a
neighbor, shortly after adjourn¬
ment in 1802.
By 1819 the ugly, reddish walls
of the old state house began to
get on the nerves of some of the
legislators. A skilled architect,
Capt. William Nichols, was called
upon to disguise them under a thin
coating of stucco and imitation
granite. A dome was raised on the
center of the roof, porticoes placed
over the east and west doors and
the interior touched up
considerably.
On the morning of
June 21, 1831, the Old
State House was de¬
stroyed by a fire which
had gained such head¬
way before it was dis¬
covered that many val¬
uable state records
were lost in the flames.
But for the indefatiga¬
ble Colonel Waightstill
Avery, North Caro¬
lina’s first Attorney-
General. most of the
acts of the General
Assembly might have
been lost also.
As much as the citi¬
zens of North Carolina
bemoaned the loss of
their old state house.
Governor Stokes didn’t
seem to regard it as
such a great loss. In
a message to the Gen¬
eral Assembly in No¬
vember 1832, he said
the destruction of the
state capitol by fire was not as
great a calamity as was at first
supposed, for the old building was
about ready to tumble in of its own
accord anyway and doubtless the
lives of numerous legislators had
been saved by its being destroyed
by fire instead of falling down on
the heads of the legislators while
the General Assembly was in
session.
Perhaps the most serious loss
was Canova's ponderous statue of
George Washington, which stood
in the rotunda. The huge marble
statue, which had been brought
from Italy to Fayetteville in a
sailing vessel and thence overland
to Raleigh drawn by teams of from
16 to 20 horses, crumbled and fell
in the ruins.
At first the legislators couldn’t
decide whether to build a new
state house on the site of the old
or to move the state capitol to
( Continued on page 22)
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