Tallahassee FL

Sign outside the Old
Capitol

After our stay in Louisiana we moved a couple hundred miles east to a campground in Alabama. We were incredibly lucky that we did that as severe storms, including tornadoes, went through the area two days after we left. After a few days in Alabama we moved on to Tallahassee FL to see the old and current Florida State Capitols.

Florida's Old State Capitol in front
of the new Capitol

The Old Capitol was built in 1845. Over the next 100 years there were a lot of additions and improvements to the building. Then in the 1970s the new Capitol was built and the plan was to tear down the old building. As is often the case with such things, there was a movement to save the old building. The effort was a success so it has survived and is now a museum.

New (current) State
Capitol

The crazy part of that story is that they had built the new building so close to the old one, because the plan was to tear the old one down, that fire safety codes were not met. This forced them to remove all of the additions since 1902 to make the old building smaller. Of course, they also had to restore the interior to the way it was in 1902. That meant stripping out all of the improvements including tons of marble. They auctioned off all of the stripped out materials so people all over the state have little pieces of history.

Senate chamber in Old Capitol

Senate Chamber in New Capitol