Major production funding for a tall order.

The Louisiana State Capitol is provided by the East Baton Rouge Parish Library's Baton Rouge.

Room Archives in the main library at Goodwood, featuring items that showcase the unique cultural, social and political history of the capital city.

Visit in-person or online at FERPA, AL.com, and by the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.

Huey Long famously wanted this to be the tallest state capitol in the United States.

He basically wanted a tower, and he also wanted to depict the history and story of Louisiana.

And the other thing is that he wanted it built with speed very quickly.

And this capital may be amongst the best in the United States.

A tall order in the Louisiana state capital.

Most biographies agree that Huey Long wanted to build a new state capital, even before he became governor when he was running for governor.

It's part of his vision for modernizing Louisiana, the state capital that dated to the antebellum period, did not reflect where he wanted to take Louisiana, and it did not really adequately reflect a kind of modern Louisiana that he was trying to bring into fruition.

What we affectionally call the old state capital was no longer adequate to serve the needs of an expanding modern government.

And Huey really wanted the nation to look upon Louisiana as a progressive state.

Huey Long first mentioned the idea of a new Louisiana state capital while campaigning for governor in 1927.

But voters and state lawmakers didn't warm up to the proposal even after Long was elected governor in 1928.

His vision for a new capital, however, was far from death, certainly by the late 1920s.

Huey Long had been able to secure $5,000 from the state board of Liquidation, and he used that money to pay the architecture firm to begin the plans for the building.

Long before he brings the formal proposal into the state legislature, architects Leon Weiss, Sala Seaforth and Phillips Julius Dreyfus were all born and raised in New Orleans.

They had all served their country in the US military.

Leon Weiss, the oldest, graduated from Tulane in 1905.

Weiss had served as a college professor and an engineer before taking on the State Capital project.

Sala Seaforth graduated from Tulane in 1914.

He devoted much time trying to guard the integrity of his profession, working with accreditation boards, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Louisiana Engineering Society, the Louisiana Architects Association, and the American Institute of Architects.

Felix Julius Dreyfus completed his architectural training at the University of Pennsylvania in 1917.

One of his primary professors was Paul Phillipe Cret, a French-American practitioner.

Professor Cret had studied architecture at École des Beaux-Arts and both of the all in Paris, France, and passed much of his knowledge on to Dreyfus.

Weiss and Dreyfus had worked as a team for a decade before they took on the State Capital project.

Seaforth joined them three years into their partnership.

The men had already designed quite a few substantial homes and hotels before a chance meeting between Leon Weiss and Huey Long changed the course of their careers.

One of the partners happened to be sitting right next to Huey Long when he was discussing that he wanted to build the state capitol, and he told him, Sir, look no further.

You're sitting right next to the architects.

It takes months to get contracts out sometimes in today's climate, but these guys go get to work.

I want to state capitol designed and built in a very short period of time as the architects worked on designs for the new capital with no money or legislative approval to begin construction.

Governor Long consistently took jabs at the existing capital on North Boulevard in Baton Rouge.

Huey Long is quoted as calling the old state capital a rat trap.

And when he was asked what ought to be done with the building after he gets approval for a new state capital, he said, you should just turn it over to some antique dealers.

The old state capital was pretty appalling.

There were leaky roofs and there were structural problems that needed to be addressed.

And so for him, the answer was the new state capital and plow forward until you get it.

His remarks about the old state capital are colorful, but they were not without substance.

The building did have problems.

While his architects designed, the governor focused on projects that gained him more popularity with a majority, but certainly not all of the people of the state.

He did good things and he did bad things, certainly ethically questionable things in terms of his sort of dominance of Louisiana's state government.

At the same time, for most common people in the state, in a state with very large proportion of poor people, his accomplishments made a real material difference in people's lives.

Building of roads and bridges making it easier for people in rural areas in particular to be connected to other parts of the state in meaningful ways, but also through expansion of educational opportunity, which he does offer many people, and not just for schoolchildren.

He oversees the development of night schools that significantly raise literacy rates among adults in Louisiana.

Much of the money for improvements came from the booming oil industry.

By then, Standard Oil loomed large in the state, especially in Baton Rouge.

The oil industry had its supporters, many of whom didn't like the way Huey Long conducted business.

The Kingfish, as he was called, didn't let his detractors stand in his way.

His tenacity is one of his main important characteristics.

Once he envisioned something, he did not let up until he brought that thing into being.

The only way you'll ever be able to feed the barrel of the people that make that man come back and bring back some that growth being at nobody.

Just one year after long was elected governor, the state House of Representatives voted in April of 1929 to impeach him on charges of misuse of state funds, bribery and blasphemy.

The Senate failed to go along with the House and long was emboldened to fight even harder for what he wanted, he says post impeachment in 1929, when he sort of wiggles out of that impeachment.

I used to say pleas to people, but now I'm a dumb animator and I dynamite them out of my way.

He was bigger than life.

Huey Long after the 1929 impeachment attempt, really began to wrestle almost total control of state government in 1930.

Long decided he wanted to represent Louisiana in the U.S. Senate, a position that could possibly help launch him into the presidency of the United States.

On September 9th of that year.

He defeated incumbent Joseph Ramsdell with 57% of the vote.

But in two weeks of being elected to the Senate, the Kingfish began laying the groundwork for his new state capital.

He would not be sworn in as a US senator until 1932, giving him more than a year to push for the new building.

The stiffest opposition came from the New Orleans area.

He had one particular opponent who would not be moved.

And so the story is that Huey Long actually had ceiling tiles removed above the legislators desks so that he would be rained on and that the ceiling would leak there.

He sort of uses a very carrot and stick approach.

He gets them to negotiations by making it difficult for the city to borrow money from banking institutions in the state.

And so he sort of squeezes them economically to bring them to the table.

But once he gets them to the table, he also sort of has some carrot that he offers them.

And ultimately what he negotiates with the city of New Orleans and it's Mayor Sam's Wamsley, is that he will, as a part of this legislative package, make it possible for New Orleans to have a new airport, a bridge over the Mississippi River, the Huey Long Bridge in Jefferson Parish, and also the apportionment of $700,000 a year for road improvements in New Orleans.

He pushes really hard in that legislative session, and what he comes away with is a $75 million road construction bill and a $5 million bill to build the new state capital.

That $5 million in 1930 would be the equivalent of close to $90 million today.

Less than two months after the legislature approved plans to build a new state capital, Louisiana voters overwhelmingly approved the project as well.

Among the first orders of business acquire more land for the structure and grounds.

The capital would be built on the site of what had been the old LSU campus.

The university had moved to a new campus just south of downtown Baton Rouge in 1925 and was still struggling for money to keep developing it and its new location.

While a stunning state capital was close to the top of Long's agenda, turning LSU into a world class institution wasn't far behind, giving LSU money for its old land was one of the ways Lang was able to exceed his predecessor, Governor or Emile Hinckley Simpson, in funding LSU by millions of dollars.

Not all the land that LSU had title to in this area that we now call Capital Park had been cleared and so after approval for the state capital is secured, there arise some questions about ownership of parcels of land that it became clear were going to be needed in the surround of the new state capital.

And so there is an issue of finding funds to pay Louisiana State University to clear title on some of the land around the state capital and the state capital campus.

And that is a fine point that Long is able to take care of after the approvals have been achieved and construction is underway in getting that approval.

He does two things at once.

Number one, he clears the title for the land so that the state can hold it.

But he's also then able to transfer funds to Louisiana State University, which by this point had become an important institution for his support as preparations were made for construction.

Buildings were demolished, trees were cleared, graves were relocated, and a railroad track was built to bring in the 2500 car loads of materials, including steel and stone of all kinds from all over the country.

This building uses a lot of limestone primarily, but this marble and granite and a collection of different stones that really come from all over the United States.

I think that they were pretty insistent to bring stone from everywhere.

When Huey depicted the capital, he basically wanted a tower, and he also wanted to depict the history and story of Louisiana narrating the story through sculpture and relief on the building.

Huey largely left the design of the capital up to the architects and they took it very seriously to have such an important building to design.

It was the architects who chose not just to build a monumental building, they decided they wanted to build a monument.

They wanted a timeless style of architecture and decided to combine the idea of a modern, sleek edifice with the classical style of decoration.

The style at the time was Beaux Arts style that had originated in Paris, and one of the instructors, Dreyfus out of Pennsylvania, schooled him in that particular design string, and then he took that knowledge into what they call probably classical modern to look at the design of the state capitol.

Mozart was a style that took a lot of the classical elements throughout the time and then twisted it into a modern vernacular.

And at that particular time, that style was actually on the way out.

That didn't seem to matter to Governor Lang or the architects.

Neither were they deterred by the Great Depression that was gripping the entire nation.

Louisiana suffers from the Great Depression at the same or a greater level than most other states.

The state still depended in large part on cash crop agriculture.

And so prices for agricultural products, particularly cotton and sugar, but it's also true for rice, really dropped precipitously in the years after 1929.

Even big planters found it difficult to make a living during this period of time.

So even people who had been wealthy and at the top of the economic structure found themselves without the kind of resources they needed, certainly to live the lives they'd had before and in some cases just to have a basic sufficiency for their livelihoods.

Lots of businesses closed down because international and domestic trade both collapse at the beginning of the Great Depression, The port facilities at New Orleans and Baton Rouge both suffer.

So people who had worked on the waterfront lose their jobs.

You have problems in trade and you also have economic problems with banks during this period of time.

But one of the ways they were able to move so many capital projects forward during the 1930s, despite the Great Depression, is that they were able to sell bonds to build these projects.

Now they would mature these bonds in 20 years, and so people were willing to invest in these infrastructure projects with the prospect that they would be paid in full over the course of the next two decades.

As the supplies came in, the architects continue to unveil the plans they had been working on for a couple of years.

The architects originally had roughly 100 drawings.

Those were basically the destruction documents in the rush.

They had to get the documents out and to the contractor started being built.

But as the contractor was building the building, they would continue to produce drawings to explain and create more details as they went along.

They probably finished with roughly 300 drawings.

By the time the capital was finished, the architects would have maybe not necessarily known at the time what piece of art might have gone where, but they knew where the piece of art was going.

So the drawings should depict where sculpture pieces or where reliefs are, where the friezes are and things of that nature.

The original drawings pencil unveiling exists to this day.

The drawings themselves are works of art.

The architects were definitely in charge of the whole orchestration of the design, construction, detailing of the building.

The architects were telling artists what they wanted.

The artists had to work through the details and listening to the architects by either doing sketches or building models.

The governor was determined that this Capitol without shine any other state capital in the country, especially Nebraska's Nebraska state capital by Bertram Goodhue, is an important building in the story of this building.

It's this period between the wars in the United States when the architects who have been trained in the historical architectures of Europe were trying to find new ways to be modern, trying to draw principles and techniques from the old historical architectural files and express modern themes.

And Bertram Goodhue, who designed the Nebraska state Capitol in the 1920s, did that in a magnificent way.

Nebraska's tower was 400 feet.

But of course, true to Huey, he had to have a taller tower.

So our tower is 450 feet tall.

This was the birth of the skyscraper.

And so the tower was exemplary of this modern style of architecture.

And to the architects also symbolize the idea of going up into the sky reach higher.

The older traditional styles of architecture primarily grew out of religious buildings.

If you've ever been, for example, to the Pantheon in Rome, the big beautiful dome with the open oculus at the top that was meant to represent the eye of Jupiter, the eye of the father of the gods, so that as you look up, it's evocative of the heavens and what you think of the cosmos.

And that contrast with the use of squares and rectilinear geometries on the ground.

And so in traditional architecture, what they do is they use that transition from the gridded, like the gridded floor here, the square buildings we all live in to an expression of the continuity of the cosmos by the use of circles in domes.

There's a line of consistency in symbolism and in representation of using a dome to refer to heaven.

The divine, the cosmos, or to unity.

Overall unity.

In this period, the art deco period in the movement towards modernism, that symbolism was thought of as being too restrictive, too narrowly focused, and not representing the diversity of goals and viewpoints in modern life.

Now, the other aspect of the history of Western architecture that applies here is the Gothic churches of Europe, which used different symbolism, was not involved with this Roman classical symbolism at all, the way in which a Gothic tower rises to aspire so that it makes a reference to the sky by the vertical lines continuing up so that the horizontal lines on the facade are suppressed and made less powerful and the vertical lines are emphasized.

So when you look at the building, it pulls your eye up on the outside.

That's a tendency of gothic architecture.

What the art deco does is it tries to strip away the specifically historical ornament that you'd find in a classical building like the U.S. Capitol Building and an ornament instead that's related to the aspirations of the program of the use of the building.

In this case, its explorers and the diversity and richness of the flora and fauna.

Then the way in which the building uses classical principles of composition, hierarchy, bilateral symmetry, so that it focuses itself, it gathers itself.

The center is the important part, the stairway that pulls you in the way that the two houses, the Senate and the House, or create flanking masses that create a sense of opening the grandeur of the stairs as they climb up.

And then the sculptural program, all of that is to frame the rise of the tower.

They signed a contract with a contractor in December of 1930.

A week later, ground was broken.

They complete the sort of excavation work by early 1931.

And from that point forward, it is great guns moving along, The first concrete was poured to build a thick foundation in December of 1930.

From then on, stone by stone, Huey Long's vision and that of the architects began to take shape.

An army of people worked from sunup until sundown every day to complete the task.

It didn't matter how hot or how cold it got.

The architects consistently reminded everyone that Huey Long, one of the buildings, finished before he left office.

Files are filled with letters and telegrams going back and forth, emphasizing the importance of moving quickly and the challenges involved.

But the architects were also very forceful in insisting that all involved meet their standards.

In February of 1931, architect Leon Weiss sent a letter to artist Laredo, Texas, telling him to spare no effort in completing his side of the project.

Meanwhile, the soon to be Senator Long was doing everything in his power to get Oscar Allen elected governor.

Apparently because of his influence over Allen.

Long had his eye on the national presidency, which gave him even more reason to take perhaps more than his share of credit for the new state capital.

As construction progressed, there is at least one case later where he makes the claim that he had signed off approvals on everything inside and outside that building down to the very last cusp door.

That's the way he says it, but that's not really accurate.

If you read interviews with the architects for that building who really talk about the fact that Long is not supervising the construction day in, day out, or the artwork, he has made the demand for the structure of the building as a skyscraper and for doing it very quickly.

And then he keeps on top of people to move that project along.

On May 16th, 1932, Louisiana's new capital, in all of its towering glory, was dedicated at the inauguration of the New governor, Oscar K Allen.

The Kingfish was not able to attend because of his duties in the U.S. Senate, but his presence was strongly felt.

The 34 storey building loomed large over Baton Rouge at 450 feet tall.

It was 50 feet taller than the state capitol in Lincoln, Nebraska.

That it was patterned after.

That building took a decade to build.

Louisiana's had been completed in a mere 14 months.

Help LBB continue to tell Louisiana story, become a member right now and receive your choice of thank you gifts for $30 a month received the A Tall order Fon Winans Fine Art print collection, which includes two iconic final images from the old Baton Rouge collection, new State Capital and Baton Rouge riverfront.

Historical information accompanies each set printed by special permission by the Winans family for $12 a month.

Receive the book Capital Park and Spanish Town by Matt ish with a foreword by J. Darden and a Louisiana State capital mug, or for just $6 a month, receive the DVD of a tall order LP.

B also has a one of a kind opportunity for a collector of Louisiana art and history for the first pledge of $10,000 or more on a credit card, you will receive an original signed fawn wine and silver gelatin photograph if titled Hueys lt from the personal collection of the Winans family.

This photograph by internationally renowned 20th century Louisiana photographer Bonneville.

Winans depicts the light from the Louisiana State Capitol, shining on the gravesite of Governor Huey P Long and is the only known 16 by 20 inch original to exist.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for that special collector in support of LP.

Thank you to the East Baton Rouge Parish Library for supporting a tall order.

The Louisiana State Capitol.

Hello and welcome everyone.

I'm Charlie.

When I'm supporter and friend of LP, you are watching a tall order, the Louisiana State capital.

What a fascinating look at how this incredible monument to the state was built.

This is a new LP documentary produced because you let us know how much you love watching stories that tell our state's history.

You have the opportunity right now to help LP produce the next great Louisiana story.

We can't do this without the support of viewers like you.

Simply call or text give to 888769 5000 pledge online at LPD dot org or scan the QR code on your screen with your smart device.

You may choose to make a one time gift or you may prefer to becoming a sustaining member with a monthly donation in amount that you decide when you call during this program, you may choose thank you gifts.

We have selected especially for you in association with this documentary.

You will also have access to the best streaming service anywhere Passport.

I am now joined by Linda Midgette, the executive producer at Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

And Linda, welcome to this particular segment.

And to Brag about, well, things you do every day talking about Louisiana stories.

Welcome.

Yeah, Thank you so much.

Tell me a little bit about how this particular documentary, how we are able to now watch it and what was the thought behind telling the state capital story.

Sure.

Well, of course, every story that we told is done with the support of viewers.

So that's passed.

Funding is what allows us to do this type of programing.

But what the tall order specifically this actually came out of an Art Roxx segment that one of our producers, Dorothy Kendrick, produced.

Dorothy has produced Art Roxx for many years and is focusing on the segments of Louisiana artist.

And in her work she came across a book about the state capital and she really became captivated with just the rich history of the capital and how it came about, how it came about so quickly.

It's just a really unusual tale.

And so she thought and I agreed with her and we all agreed this is really worthy of a longer telling of the story.

There are 50 state capitals, but my personal opinion, you can call me biased.

Louisiana has the most unique state capital in America.

Why?

You're not biased?

I think it's true.

And actually it's sort of quantitatively true.

As you watch this documentary and learn the unique design behind this very unique history.

It really is one of a kind.

Well, let folks know that this is a corporate challenge.

And Roy O. Martin is challenging all viewers to donate tonight.

And they will match dollar for dollar up to the first 1500 dollars called in during this program only.

So, in effect, this will make your donation worth twice as much to help be royal.

Martin has always been a wonderful benefactor.

We've been a wonderful benefactor of their efforts and their charity, and they really do a wonderful job, too.

They are tremendous supporters of LBB.

We're very grateful for them.

When you walk around the state Capitol, it's as impressive on the outside as it is really.

It is on the inside.

And it's once again a great story to share to folks who have even they could have lived here all their life, or it's the first time.

Well, and it's one of those things, Charlie, that I think you've seen perhaps your whole life that you've never really looked so carefully at it.

So when you really look at the detail is just it's spectacular and the amount of thought that went into it, it's just not something that you wouldn't know unless you unless you have an opportunity like this to really learn and then have new eyes to see it.

You hit the nail on the head because there is just so much to see.

It's even a sensory overload of of stuff and imagery and the stories behind it.

So that is truly a gift.

This, this program certainly is.

And speaking of gifts right now, you need to call and we have some wonderful thank you gifts to share with you help.

LBB Continue to tell Louisiana Story.

Become a member right now and receive your choice of thank you gifts for $30 a month.

Receive the A Tall order Fonda for Winans Fine Art print collection, which includes two iconic final images from the old Baton Rouge collection, new State Capitol and Baton Rouge Riverfront Historical information accompanies each set printed by special permission by the Winans family for $12 a month.

Receive the book Capital Park and Spanish Town by Matt ish with a foreword by J. Darden and a Louisiana State Capitol mug, or for just $6 a month, receive the DVD of a tall order.

LP.

B also has a one of a kind opportunity for a collector of Louisiana art and history for the first pledge of $10,000 or more on a credit card, you will receive an original signed fawn, full wine and silver gelatin photograph titled Hueys LT from the personal collection of the Winans family.

This photograph by internationally renowned 20th century Louisiana photographer Phon Vo Winans depicts the light from the Louisiana State Capitol shining on the gravesite of Governor Huey P Long and is the only known 16 by 20 inch original to exist.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for that special collector in support of LP.

Thank you to the East Baton Rouge Parish Library for supporting a tall order.

The Louisiana State Capitol.

And once again I'm joined with Lynda Midget LPI executive producer.

And Linda, you can't talk about the state capitol without talking about Huey Long.

Huey Long You can accuse him of many things, but you cannot accuse him of being boring.

It's true.

And and he's his amazing vision for this and for what it would mean to the state.

It's really a tremendous and how hard he worked, how relentless he was to bring this to fruition at a time in the country where there was so much going on, it was so difficult with the Depression.

It really is extraordinary that he was able to accomplish this 14 months.

This building took for only I mean, 18 months.

That's crazy.

You can't build anything today in 14 months, much less this building.

I mean, I honestly don't know how they did it.

Exactly.

It is such a wonderful building.

It it's it's memorializes, but it is a memorial to the state and to the United States and the United States in general, isn't it?

Well, and it's just such an amazing landmark visually.

You know, as you look at the footage here, the view of that on the Mississippi, I mean, there's just nothing there's nothing like it, which includes drone footage that Chris Laycock has beautifully helped tell the story of the state capitol.

Yeah, yeah.

No, we're really excited about these visions of the Capitol, the visuals that we have never had before.

Thank you, Linda.

And let's hear more about that special credit card offer.

He was like is a part of Fonda's historical collection.

That collection was discovered in 1956 by my father, who was actually cleaning up the darkroom at the time and among those that were printed that far.

But that was one of the ones that five were printed as a 16 by ten is only 16, But 20 that was ever printed of of Hughes light.

And I think Bonneville printed it because he there wasn't any night photograph that he had this none really other than Hughes light it's different so architect Sally's secret would tell audiences 50 years later I think we felt we had to make the whole story of the history of Louisiana in stone.

Seaforth went on to say, I don't know that you could get that much workmanship, that much craftsmanship in a building.

Again, he said.

Everyone worked under tremendous pressure, yet what they managed to achieve is staggering.

They were able to hire about 40 artists and artisans who all were working at the exact same time.

Such a building could never, ever be built today, especially with such opulence and such attention to detail, they were able to hire the artists that at that point in time were considered to be the best in the nation.

They had the highest reputations for their day.

When you approached the state capitol, the first thing notice is its great height and the towering doorframe.

But you also encounter a wide expanse of stone steps.

There are 49 steps.

Each one is carved with the name of the states in the nation.

In order of their acceptance into the union.

Alaska and Hawaii were admitted.

Later, the architects wanted right off the bat, not only for visitors from other states and across the world to feel welcome, but they also wanted to symbolize the both independence of the states and their entered dependance and forming the United States of America.

On each side of the steps, there are several blocky piers and those piers are decorated around the top with reliefs of pelicans, our state bird and the lotus flower, which is indigenous to Louisiana but has long been a symbol from Egyptian times of immortality.

As you progress a little further up the steps you encounter two piers upon which there are freestanding sculptures.

These are the only freestanding sculptures in the building.

They were made by Laredo Taft, who at that point was being called the dean of American sculpture.

He had studied in France at the École de Beaux Arts, which was very well renowned and was on one side are the Patriots, and on the other side are the pilgrims.

Each has a large central figure.

Flanked by a group of smaller figures, the Pilgrims has a large woman standing in the middle for exemplifies the spirit of adventure, and she is standing on two treasure chests strewn with vegetables and fruits that are indicative of Louisiana.

She is accompanied by the early explorers DeSoto and LaSalle to represent French and the Spanish and accompanied by priests, frontiersmen and French and Spanish and Native American settler.

On the other side are the patriots with an imposing soldier in armor standing in the middle who's resting upon a large shield, and he's standing upon the coffin of a fallen hero.

He's accompanied by mourners and an elderly couple.

Perhaps they are the parents of the fallen soldier.

The gentleman has his hat over his chest and a symbol of respect.

As you move up the stairs towards the grand 50 foot doorway.

There are two friezes on either side by Adolf Wineman.

Women's relief on the left is titled The Government based on Law, Order and Justice, fostering the higher aspirations of her people.

The procession begins with Zuse, or a Jupiter like figure who represents governmental authority.

And there are two figures closest to him that represent the peaceful enforcement of order.

The procession following behind them are supposed to be the higher aspirations.

So you have education, then science.

Who's trampling the demon of ignorance and superstition, and then religion and lastly, you have art who has a laurel wreath on her head and is playing harp on the other side.

The title is The Spirit of Liberty and Peace, Furthering the Material Welfare of the People.

And this time there's a large woman at the front of the procession.

She's holding a torch and an olive branch, and she represents liberty.

She's accompanied by a youth holding the horn of plenty who is the genius of abundance.

And then there is a procession.

And what you have agriculture carrying the sheep of grain, lumbering, then pottery, then weaving, and the ancient messenger of the gods at the end is to represent commerce.

They release at the top of the portal art to represent communication and craftsmanship.

For instance, there's a person with a telegraph machine, whereas the ones on the sides are to represent that industry.

We have emblems of men sign logs to represent the logging industry, picking cotton to represent the cotton industry, cutting cane, to represent the cane industry and so forth.

Above the portal is our state bird.

The pelican, and the pelican is piercing its breasts to feed its young with its own blood as a symbol of the great nurturing capacity that state has over its people.

And flanking it are two large eagles to represent the federal government's nurturing of the nation.

The state motto is also included which states union justice confidence directly above the portal.

Also by Lowry are six figures to represent the various governments that have had authority over the state on each of the ends is a Native American.

And then there's the female figure holding a small model of the build out to represent Spain.

The figure holding the cotton branch represents the Confederacy.

The United States is represented by a female figure holding an olive branch and arrows, and a male figure with a flower.

Dilly represents France.

They are quotes from one of the framers of the Declaration of Independence to the left and right of the friezes surrounding the grand entry.

Robert Livingston, the lawyer from New York, also negotiated the Louisiana Purchase after signing the document, he had these words to say.

We have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives.

It will transform vast solitudes into thriving districts.

The United States take rank this day among the first powers of the earth.

The instruments which we have just signed will cause no tears to be shed.

They prepare ages of happiness for innumerable generations of human creatures.

The Capitol building has two wings on each side.

One to house the house and the other for the Senate.

If you look at the massing, the architects envision the wings as kind of the solid base.

More the grounded earthly portion of the building around the top level of that base above the windows.

And in between the pilasters, which are rectangular columns, are 22 portrait reliefs to represent what the architects considered at that time to be the most significant men to have made contributions to Louisiana's history.

There were five New Orleans artists who were commissioned to make those reliefs.

Among them was Angela Gregory, who was still in her twenties and was just back from France and had completed the criminal courthouse in New Orleans.

She was given first choice of the 22 and chose eight among the ones that Angela Gregory selected was John James Audubon and Thomas Jefferson on the fifth floor.

Surrounding the base is a very elaborate frieze detailing the entire history of Louisiana from its early exploration and colonization through its various wars, its successes and its failures all the way through to World War One.

They include scenes such as those related to Lasalle's explorations colonization, Spanish rule, the Louisiana Purchase, our relations with the Native Americans, the arrival of the Acadians, and even the Battle of New Orleans.

Of particular note is the scene depicting the casket girls in French.

It would have been cassettes.

They were so named because of their small suitcases.

They were young women who came from France to Louisiana in search of husbands and were taken in by the Ursuline nuns who ran an orphanage.

The children of Seaforth and Dreyfuss were used as models for the young girl and boy in that scene in the north east corner, there's an actual relief of the three architects standing with you, along with the capital in the background.

I don't know if you knew that they had put that there.

As an architect, I can tell you that that's an unbelievable legacy to have to be as part of the capital help.

LBB Continue to tell Louisiana Story, Become a member right now and receive your choice of you Gifts for $30 a month.

Received the a tall order font va Winans fine art print collection, which includes two iconic final images from the old Baton Rouge collection, new State Capital and Baton Rouge riverfront.

Historical information accompanies each set printed by special permission by the Winans family for $12 a month.

Receive the book Capital Park and Spanish Town by Matt ish with a foreword by J. Darden and a Louisiana State capital mug, or for just $6 a month, receive the DVD of a tall order LP.

B also has a one of a kind opportunity for a collector of Louisiana art and history for the first pledge of $10,000 or more on a credit card, you will receive an original signed fawn, full wine and silver gelatin photograph titled Hueys LT from the personal collection of the Winans family.

This photograph by internationally renowned 20th century Louisiana photographer Phon Vo Winans depicts the flight from the Louisiana state capital shining on the gravesite of Governor Huey P Long and is the only known 16 by 20 inch original to exist.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for that special collector in support of LP.

Thank you to the East Baton Rouge Parish Library for supporting a tall order.

The Louisiana State Capitol.

Hi everyone, I'm Charlie when I'm friend of LP.

Welcome back into our LPD studios.

During this broadcast of a tall order, the Louisiana State Capitol.

We know you love stories about the history, architecture, art and politics that make Louisiana such a colorful state.

But in order for us to produce more fascinating stories such as this, we need you to be part of our almost 50 year legacy.

It's an easy process to support your public television network in Louisiana.

We will share our new productions with you here and through our digital platforms, including Lpx Passport, our streaming service that comes with your membership.

Simply call or text.

Give to eight, seven, six, nine, 5000.

Become a member online at npr.org or scan the QR code that is on your screen with your smart device and through our sustaining membership program.

A budget friendly amount of your choosing makes it sustaining for you and for us.

I'm here with Linda Midget, LPI executive producer, and it's wonderful to talk more about a treasure, which is the state capital.

And this work came about from, well, dedicated workers at LPI given their their all and shared ideas, right?

Absolutely.

So Dorothy Kendrick is one of our producers here.

She's produced Art Rocks for many years and one of the documentaries that she's also produced in the past was about Angela Gregory, who was an amazing sculptor ahead of her time.

And her work is actually part of the state capital as well, which was something I didn't know until Dorothy started this project.

On the state capital.

Anywhere you turn at the state capital, there is a story and I mean the greatest architects and the best artists of their day in American history were part of this state capital.

It's amazing.

These the architects were such visionaries, you know, just such an incredible amount of thought.

And like you said, the artisans that they brought down, it's just a testament to the talent that has been within Louisiana for so many years.

If you're lucky enough, you have already been to the state capital, and if not, you need to come on and visit Baton Rouge and make your way up there to maybe find a very fun spot that might be a favorite spot to to see.

And do you have a favorite, the view of the state capital or inside the state capital?

I think my favorite view of the state capital is actually from an airplane.

I don't know if you've ever caught this.

When you fly on to Baton Rouge that sometimes they they kind of like swoop around the Mississippi.

And if it's at night in particular, it's just a really spectacular view.

It's a neat way to see it.

I love seeing the Mississippi right by the state capital when when folks wherever you happen to live, sometimes I think the state capital might be taken for granted, just like anywhere you happen to be.

And it's all that's just the Eiffel Tower, you know, it's it's like this is a grand monument to to the state.

It's a grand monument to the United States.

It absolutely is.

And it's and it's so unique among state capitals across our whole country.

There's just nothing like it.

Hey, I want to let you also know this is a corporate challenge.

This is important.

Royal Martin is challenging all viewers to donate tonight.

They will match dollar for dollar.

The first 1500 dollars called in during this program only.

So, in effect, your donation, your pledge, is worth twice as much to help.

So please give us a call.

Go online.

We really need to hear from you now and we need to share more Louisiana stories.

We need to share some thank you gifts with you as well.

Take a look.

Help LBB Continue to tell Louisiana Story.

Become a member right now and receive your choice of thank you gifts for $30 a month.

Receive the tall order Fonua Winans Fine Art print collection, which includes two iconic final images from the old Baton Rouge collection, New State Capital and Baton Rouge Riverfront.

Historical information accompanies each set printed by special permission by the Winans family for $12 a month.

Receive the book Capital Park and Spanish Town by Matt ish with a foreword by J. Darden and a Louisiana State Capitol mug.

Or for just $6 a month, receive the DVD of a tall order.

Libby also has a one of a kind opportunity for a collector of Louisiana art and history for the first pledge of $10,000 or more on a credit card, you will receive an original signed, full wine and silver gelatin photograph titled Hueys LT from the personal collection of the Winans family.

This photograph by internationally renowned 20th century Louisiana photographer find voluminous Arms depicts the flight from the Louisiana state capital shining on the gravesite of Governor Huey P Long and is the only known 16 by 20 inch original to exist.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for that special collector in support of LPI.

Thank you to the East Baton Rouge Parish Library for supporting a tall order the Louisiana State Capitol.

And now let's take a look at some incredible all credit card specials.

With the help of Farmville Winans grandson Bonneville loved LPI.

We enjoy LPI as a family.

My children love APB and courses about the state capitol, and when I was approached by LP, this picture popped into my immediately just because we've had it for so long and it's been at my father's house and every time I see it at my father's house, I always thought of it as, Wow, you know, here's a it's a dark place sometimes in the world and here's this light shining, you know, that's always stood out to me.

And it made me think, you know, hey, this is this is a good this would be good.

Linda, I think it's safe to say that when anyone thinks about Louisiana Public Broadcasting, they think about local programing.

LPI Is the state's story telling.

Yeah, that's what we specialize on.

And you know, we touched a little bit and on the history of the state capital in why Louisiana, Mississippi or any or any place else.

And that's just one example of the just the multitude of stories in Louisiana that OPB has covered over the years.

We cover a lot of these in the state run, which of course is our weekly newsmagazine show and just independent documentaries that we work with, Cajun Dome City.

I mean, there are so many examples as too many to say off the top of my head.

But but there are a million stories in Louisiana, and we are trying to tell all million of them.

Absolutely.

We are going to run out of time before we run out of stories to tell.

I believe so in Louisiana, Linda, there's a question about the height and the fight of the state capitol, Louisiana.

What's that all about?

Yeah, so the height was 450 feet.

I have that correct.

Amazing.

And then this fight with Nebraska, I mean, you think about this in the day before social media that they're tracking each other's movements like that.

And you know, what a what a sense of competition to think.

We're going to put it up, you know, higher and faster than they did.

And he pulled it off.

You did 14 months.

You never got second place.

He never did that much.

We can count it now.

What we can count on right now is here support and also on Royal Martin, because this is a corporate challenge.

Royal Martin is challenging all viewers right now and they will match dollar for dollar up to the first 1500 dollars called in during this program only.

So, in effect, your donation will be worth twice as much to help.

We thank you for your support.

Let's go back to our program, Moving up the tower.

The next 16 floors are bare of decoration.

While the architects considered the base of the capital to be a celebration of our history and all of our progress made thus far, moving up the tower, we began to see the symbolism dedicated to our future, looking towards the aspirations and the progress still to be made.

We encounter from floor 21 through Floor 25 these colossal figures that represent and the architects mind the spirits of a free and enlightened people.

These were also made by Lee Lowry, who had done the portal and the figures representing government below on each corner is a large figure of a woman.

One represents the spirit of law, the spirit of science, the spirit of philosophy, and the spirit of art.

They have cherubs below them and they have reliefs and below that exemplify both the wild flora and fauna of Louisiana, such as raccoons, cat tails, crawfish, as well as those that were cultivated such as sugar and cotton.

Directly above them are friezes that include pelicans and magnolias between the colossal spirits and the temple above.

Also designed by Lee Lowry is the 26th floor.

The 26th floor has been kept bare to represent education, to represent the taking in of knowledge and experience from the spirits in order to symbolically enter the temple, which is at the top.

The temple is decorated with celestial imagery such as moons and stars and clouds.

They are urns to hold the symbolic ashes of the material world and large eagles, not just representing our nation, but to represent the obtaining of even higher aspirations.

They're ready to take flight up into the sky.

There are four portals are openings on each corner of the globe, which are designed not to be entered, but to disseminate out the knowledge and experience of the Louisiana people to spread our good will far and wide at top.

The temple is a lantern also designed by Lowry, a large lantern, and that in the minds of the architects, is to represent the light of hope, of faith and of knowledge.

A little beato, a little cupola is it is that is used to put light in to allow from the interior to have an opening in the dome like the Pantheon Pantheon in Rome, the opening is open.

It rains in the building in Saint Peter's of St Paul's and at the US Capitol.

It's not.

It looks open.

And then there's glass in a cupola on the top that lets light come in.

So you look up, you see the light it provides from the interior in a church, the idea that there's a connection to the light of heaven in the dome.

It's building a massive.

But then that's not going on here because there's not a dome here, but that architectural form of diminishing and by that means approaching the sky is what that cupola does.

And in a kind of a switch, the light here, it's like a white light, it's like a searchlight so that it glows at night.

It's the culmination and the building was built during the Depression.

There was plenty of labor probably not skilled labor, and the story was that they built the spur in a fence around the capital to ship and all the materials and people would just be milling around on the outside.

And if you didn't work hard enough or fast enough as a laborer, you were off the job and they pull the next guy in off the fence.

So the Capitol was probably built at the right time.

The Louisiana State Capitol was a steel frame building.

The stone is essentially used as cladding.

It's yeah, it symbolizes stability and permanence.

So it's a good skin for this kind of building.

And it supports decorative carving beautifully.

The big stone pieces are carved on the back to receive bolts and clips and pins that allow it to be hung and bolted onto the steel frame.

The stone is not really load bearing, although it looks like it's load bearing, it's being carried by the steel frame.

But the way the public sees it, it looks like it's self-supporting and they want it to look like it's self-supporting.

In the 1930s, the kind of large super cranes that you see when high rise buildings are built.

Today, they didn't have those.

They would build one floor at a time.

The steel frame, just the steel frame and whole other pieces up along the outside and add them and get that stabilized and haul pieces up in the air.

Then they would use the frame of the building itself.

That's cumbersome.

When the state capitol was built, many parts of America didn't have electricity, especially in rural parts of Louisiana.

The urgency to make sure all American homes had electricity was part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal.

Amid depression, tremendous emphasis on air conditioning.

Public spaces came in the 1920s with the inception of movie theaters.

So it's notable that electricity ran through the state capital from the beginning.

Engineers, builders and architects managed to get the whole building both heated and air conditioned.

There was a ball and it provided steam throughout the building for heating and cooling perimeter radiation units.

When you got to the tower portions, those elements did not withstand the test of time and they had to be replaced with modern equipment just to not only keep the occupants comfortable, but to keep them from damaging the elements of the building.

So it was quite an achievement.

At the time.

Running water was fairly common in the 1930s, but it was a challenge to run plumbing to the top floors of the capital.

Workers met the challenge.

They also managed to get elevator service throughout the building.

These accomplishments came at the expense of practical office space.

The 2020 census showed.

Louisiana has a population of 4.6 million, more than double the number of people who lived here in the 1930s.

The Number of state workers and services have increased dramatically, but the design of the building doesn't allow for expansion.

Architects agree that the vertical building and the amount of space needed for elevators, staircases and bathrooms doesn't leave much room for office workers.

The design of the Capitol obviously efficiency was not one of the top concerns.

If you look at Memorial Hall alone and see that's a huge space, what does it really do?

But it is a fabulous space and it is what makes the capital of the capital, the perimeter of the tower.

It's too small to really accomplish very much in terms of usable office space.

So it's a very inefficient design in terms of that the tower houses the offices and government, the floor plate of the tower, the size of the tower square footage on the floor of the tower is really too small to work efficiently.

And so it means that any one office like the governor's office has to be distributed among three or four floors.

And that's the price you pay when you want your tower to be the tallest one in the country.

And that's a sacrifice that Long was willing to make.

And it's a sacrifice that state government has been saddled with in some ways ever since.

I think one of the important things in the history of this building occurred with Mike Foster.

When Mike Foster decided to bring the flock back home, there were so many state office workers that had been farmed out throughout the city and out of the suburb.

He decided to bring all of those back here and to build these big new office buildings and to create a capital park so that the surroundings not only would be made useful and related to the function of government, but could create a monumental park.

It's what spurred the genesis of this bill, which spurred the renovation of the State Library.

Here is running the big new office buildings here, the big Clayborn building.

It provides a kind of a a monumental setting for the rise of that tower.

It was a visionary act.

It made a lot of sense financially.

It made a lot of sense for revitalizing downtown Baton Rouge by bringing all those customers back downtown every day.

And it's been a big part of the rejuvenate mission of Baton Rouge in the last 30 years.

And it makes sense for the monumentality and the cultural richness of the capital and its immediate environment.

The first thing about Louisiana state capital is it's built to be a monument, an overt expression of power.

There are a number of things that give this building its monumentality.

One is its position by the river.

That's very important.

Baton Rouge is unique in the whole sweep of the Mississippi River for two reasons.

One, what's called the Baton Rouge region.

It's about a ten mile a level straight bluff that runs almost north and south that makes a stable place for landing and shipping and that sort of thing.

The other thing is that it really marks the last time you can on stable ground and view the Mississippi River.

After this, it starts to meander across the coastal plain on the grounds of this Capitol building.

There were more, but there's still one Native American man.

There's two at LSU that have been carbon dated to over 5000 years old.

That means they're amongst the oldest manmade structures in the Western Hemisphere.

We don't know anything about the people who built them except the choice of site.

And that site on this bluff is the last place you can stand on high ground and look across the floodplain and see the river.

That's the same reason that Standard Oil built a refinery here.

This plot of ground has a significance in terms of the continental structure of the United States and the capital.

Memorialize is that for me, that's the beginning of its quest for meaning.

It stands next to the river.

You see it from the highways.

The way that I-10 coming from the west turns and aligns.

I 110 purposefully turns so that you see it as you're coming down into Baton Rouge, but you also see it from the river for a long way up.

I also love when the flight pattern changes you to where you're coming in along the Mississippi River and you can see the capital in the formal gardens.

It's a fantastic view.

It's as nice as anything you see.

It's like coming into New York at Central Park or Washington, D.C., along the mall.

The bayou behind it used to drain into the river.

Most of West Baton Rouge Parish drains into the Amy River to the east.

There's very few places here in East Baton Rouge Parish that drain into the river.

That bayou is one, and it was dam to create that lake so that the capital would be seen and reflected in a body of water.

There's an aligning of symbols and symbolism before we get to the decorative program.

If you look at the capital, the way the architects I think, really wanted people to approach it and appreciate it, at the entrance to the formal gardens, scaled with the background of the gardens is perfect When you go get dropped off at the capital, right at the front steps, you don't appreciate that scale.

You miss most of what's happening on the exterior that capital.

But if you look at it back from several hundred yards, you can see the story kind of unfold.

The function of monumentality in architecture is to gather people together, to give people a focal point where we can see expressions of our shared beliefs and our shared aspirations.

And this capital may be amongst the best in the United States in that dimension.

It speaks eloquently in terms of its shape, its massing, its character, its location, and especially its sculptural program and the artistic program that you see on the interior, the great murals, the detailed stonework.

All of that is about enthusiasm for the public realm.

All of that is meant to inspire, to be the best they can be, to learn about the symbolism and use it as a guide in your own life, to learn about the history of the explorers, the diversity and richness of the flora and fauna.

The architecture is stripped down here and, provides an armature for then the symbolic message to be applied.

And that symbolic message here is richly done as any in the United States deserves to be known.

That help.

LBB continue to tell Louisiana story Become a member right now and receive your choice of thank you gifts for $30 a month received the a Tall order Fonda Winans fine art print collection, which includes two iconic final images from the old Baton Rouge collection and new state capital and Baton Rouge.

Riverfront Historical information accompanies each set printed by special permission by the Winans family for $12 a month.

Receive the book Capital Park and Spanish Town by Matt ish with a foreword by J. Darden and a Louisiana State capital, or for just $6 a month, receive the DVD of a tall order.

LP.

B also has a one of a kind opportunity for a collector of Louisiana and history for the first pledge of $10,000 or more On a credit card, you will receive an original signed fine VA Winans Silver gelatin photograph titled Hueys LT from the personal collection of the Winans family.

This photograph by internationally renowned 20th century Louisiana phon va. Winans depicts the light from the Louisiana state capitol shining on the gravesite of Governor Huey p long and is the only known 16 by 20 inch original to exist.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for that special collector in support of LP.

Thank you to the East Baton Rouge Parish Library for supporting a tall order.

The Louisiana State Capitol.

Everyone welcome back.

I'm Charlie Wynn.

I'm supporter and friend of LP.

I hope you have enjoyed a tall order.

The Louisiana State Capitol.

This is the last break to show your support for original LP documentaries such as this.

We rely on viewer support to produce the stories about Louisiana that you tell us you love so much.

So please call us now at 888, seven, six, nine, 5000 to give to that same number or make your pledge online at LP dot org or scan that QR code you see on your screen with your smartphone camera.

If you are already a member, please consider making an additional one time contribution to take advantage of the offers we have for you right now.

And that you just heard about as a membership bonus, you will also have access to LP Passport.

And I am with Linda Mitch at the LPI executive producer and Linda.

Good storytelling is what LP is known for.

Good photography helps make good storytelling.

Yeah, absolutely.

Chris Leacock is one of our videographers here and a producer and he is the one who took these amazing drone shots of the capital and I have to tell you, when he brought this footage back to the station, we all just, you know, our mouths dropped because it was just so stunning to see this view of the capital that unless you're a bird, you've probably never seen it look exactly like that.

So it's amazing being able to have the equipment that we need, tell stories at this high level, and you are able to do so much good work and get that good equipment because of viewers like these out in the audience?

Absolutely.

I mean, you know, we have such a unique relationship with our audience that that if you're not in public television, you don't have that.

But as our viewers and their support of our work, that literally makes the difference in what we do.

We see how public broadcasting has been making programs that tell Louisiana's story to not only Louisiana audiences, but to national and international audience alike.

And I believe that that's a source of pride to anyone that's inside.

OPB Yeah, absolutely.

You know, it's amazing when I travel around the country that people know of LAPD.

They know of the work that we do.

They're very complimentary of it.

And there's nothing better as a storyteller than knowing that your stories are being seen and, heard and appreciated.

When we walk around the state capitol, maybe there's a field trip you know, students can go to, but that's just a one time thing.

This is something of a 60 minute program that you can watch again and again and learn, because there is a lot to learn when we talk about what is inside the safe camp know absolutely.

This is it's truly education at its finest.

And I have to ask you, Charlie, do you have a memory of the first time that you visited the state capital or remember seeing it?

That's a great question about the first time.

It probably was about 22 years ago.

The whole place just blew me away from going into Memorial Hall, I think was that really spoke volumes.

We walked up the stairs that had all the 50 states memorial.

Hall was the most impressive, and I've now come to really love the observation deck where you just can walk all and see all four sides, 360 angle and it tells, you know, from from that vantage point just all of Louisiana story Yeah it's a beautiful time and this is a great time for you to be part of the corporate challenge because Roy Martin is challenging all viewers to donate and they will match dollar for dollar up to the first $15 called in during this program only.

So, in effect, you call your donation will be worth twice as much to Louisiana Public Broadcasting and we also have some wonderful thank you gifts.

Let's hear about them.

Help.

LBB continue to tell Louisiana Story.

Become a member right now and receive your choice of thank you gifts for $30 a month.

Receive the a tall order phone va Winans fine art print collection, which includes two iconic final images from the old Baton Rouge collection, new State Capitol and Baton Rouge riverfront.

Historical information accompanies each set printed by special permission by the Winans family for $12 a month.

Receive the book Capital Park and Spanish Town by Matt ish with a foreword by Jay Darden and a Louisiana State Capitol mug.

Or for just $6 a month, receive the DVD of a tall order LP.

B also has a one of a kind opportunity, a collector of Louisiana art and history for the first pledge of $10,000 or more On a credit card, you will receive an original signed fine wine and a silver gelatin photograph titled Hueys LT from the personal collection of the Winans family.

This photograph by internationally renowned 20th century Louisiana photographer VA Winans depicts the light from the Louisiana State Capitol shining on the gravesite of Governor Huey P Long and is the only known 16 by 20 inch original to exist.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for that special collector in support of LP.

Thank you to the East Baton Rouge Parish Library for supporting a tall order.

The Louisiana State Capitol Linda 2031 will mark the 100 years when the Capitol was just being built and we're talking about the Great Depression, you know, and things tough and and yet things got built faster and and the just the wonders of what was inside the state capitol in its time is is an amazing story, too.

It really is.

And you can only imagine how the people of Louisiana must have felt when struggling to find food and work.

And there was so much suffering that was going on.

It had to be really incredible to have this amazing architectural feat pulled off and something that that they could be proud of and feel good about.

And I can only imagine how that must have felt to them.

I agree, was quite an accomplishment.

And then the the shining example that just for all the world to see was quite an architectural feat.

It was artistically one of the most dynamic things of its time and just a real showcasing of a place.

Well, you had heat, you know, air conditioning, which was very uncommon back then.

An elevator.

And that's a tall elevator, too, Right?

Exactly.

Exactly.

And then the 49 stops that lead up to the symbolism that is in that, you know, it just there was no detail that was left and thought of.

That's a great way to to wrap a bow on that for sure.

And and now let's take a look at some incredible credit card specials with the help of Farmville Winans grandson.

So he's light, I think first was shown at Taylor Clark Gallery, I think in the early sixties.

And then we had a show in Angel, France, and it made its way to and from France.

There is a crease in that print from that shipping from that show in Angelo, France.

So that's a record of that travel where that prints been, there's only 116 by 20 that was ever printed of Hughes light and the only one that he signed.

So there are there are no more 16 by 20.

This is it.

Linda, thank you so much for another wonderful job.

Thank You it's it's a pleasure to be able to sort of brag about the great work that our team does here.

Yeah, without a doubt.

Almost 50 years, Louisiana Public Broadcasting has been right here for.

You give today, not much is written about what Huey Long thought of the work of the architects, the builders, the artists and the many common laborers.

But Long's actions may speak louder than words.

By the time the capital was completed, Huey Long was a U.S. senator representing Louisiana, and he was based in Washington.

That didn't him from enjoying the new capital.

He will come from Washington and through Allen calls special sessions of the legislature and their stories of just vacating his office in the state capital and turning it over to Huey Long.

And I've even seen a reference to a set of rooms on the 24th floor being turned into an apartment for long when he was here.

So he didn't even have to leave the state capitol.

He would come in and really ride roughshod over the legislature for several days at a time, and bills were passed in the dozens through the House and then the Senate.

That's unusual because at that point he had no constitutional authority to be doing that.

But he is doing that.

It is an important part of Huey Long story and trajectory and ultimately the tragedy of his assassination, that he was really in many ways, the person who envisioned the new state capital and made it possible legislatively and pushed very hard day in, day out to have it completed so that it is a part of his legacy.

But the other part of that legacy is that he was shot in that building on September 8th, 1935, and he will die very early on the morning of September ten.

The bullet that damages his body and ultimately leads to his death is delivered to him in the state capitol itself.

And so that is a tragedy.

It's clear that Huey Long had been concerned about his own safety, and that is one of the reasons that he always had bodyguards near, beside and around him.

People come from all across the state to see him in state, and then he is interred on the grounds of the state capitol, where ultimately this very impressive statue and sculpture of long is in direct with the building that he had envisioned.

That is probably appropriate under the circumstances.

You cannot think about Louisiana in the 1930s without understanding the period of Dewey Long's reign over the state of Louisiana.

And that is all very concentrated in the history of but also the ongoing existence of the state capital that he wanted and that he achieved and that he continues to live beside and will in perpetuity.

Historians will agree and disagree about Governor Long's agenda as he built big in Louisiana roads, bridges and, of course, the state capitol.

One of the architects who helped maintain the building believes it's mostly about making the state look good and making sure the people of the state feel better about themselves.

But the governor also valued a legacy here.

He wanted this state capital, I think, mostly for the citizens, and I think he saw that there was a definitely need for something to be proud of.

And then if you look at the vote on the bond sale, it was 99% for it.

No doubt, though, that it was something that he wanted to leave as a legacy, also that he could put his name and stamp on.

And I would think that when he went through that capital aptly was built, that his chest was high and proud of what he had brought upon, that the citizens, I think, is the power of government and the historical aspect of that statue that the people work in there were very proud to be in there.

Does it work efficiently for them?

As efficiently as we could get it?

The Louisiana legislature met for the first time in the old state capital in 1850, while Huey Long was ready to level the building in the 1920s.

One state architect believes will be around for many years to come.

Though state capital is in great shape, we have restored the exterior.

We're doing more waterproofing and cleaning of.

We restored the fence around the property and it's obviously a museum.

It's a gem.

The architects who presided over the construction of the new state capital, Weiss, Dreyfus and Seaforth, went on to help erect several other important buildings for the state.

The governor's mansion, the Charity Hospital in New Orleans, the Lakefront Airport in New Orleans and several buildings at LSU.

But Weiss, Dreyfus and Seaforth will probably always be known best for designing the Louisiana state capital, still the tallest in the country and maybe even the most decorated in 2031.

Louisiana celebrates the 100th of the new state capital, a time of reflection on the accomplishments of the past and expectations for the future.

The capital.

It'll be here another 100 years, barring any catastrophic event, and it'll be here.

Even if it's not operating as a capital, it will be a in a museum to our time, just like the old state capital down the road.

I don't know how many states have two state capitals of that caliber.

That's a showpiece for our state.

Major production funding for a tall order.

The Louisiana state capital is provided by the East Baton Rouge Parish Library's Baton Rouge Room archives in the main library at Goodwood, featuring items that showcase the unique cultural, social and political history of the capital city.

Visit in person or online at Ebru AL.com and by the foundation Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting and viewers like you.

Thank you.