Vermont State House Montpelier golden dome
— a gold dome lit low at the foot of the hardwoods.
Not only on a wall.
“The Vermont State House sits at the foot of Hubbard Park's wooded ridge in Montpelier, the smallest capital in the country. The portico is Greek Revival granite, modeled on a temple in Athens; the dome is gold leaf, regilded every twenty years or so; the figure on top is Agriculture, holding a wheat sheaf. The whole composition reads warm, not grand.
Vermont State House Montpelier golden dome, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Vermont State House stands on State Street in Montpelier, the capital of Vermont and, with about 8,000 residents, the least populous state capital in the United States. The current building, completed in 1859, is the third state house on the site; granite for the walls came from Barre, six miles south. The portico is patterned after the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens. Hubbard Park's 194-acre forest rises directly behind the dome.
The walls are Barre granite, quarried from the Rock of Ages site six miles south, said to be the largest deep-hole granite quarry in the world. The portico columns are doric, the entablature plain, the proportions modeled on the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens. The dome itself is wood framed, sheathed in copper, and finished in genuine gold leaf, regilded roughly every two decades to keep the colour true.
The State House is open to the public throughout the year, free of charge, with guided tours on the half-hour from July through mid-October and self-guided access the rest of the year. The legislature sits from early January through the spring; visitors can watch debate from the gallery. Most tours run about forty-five minutes and cover both chambers, the cedar of Lebanon column in the lobby, and the original Civil War battle flags on the second floor.