Ohio Statehouse Honors State, People, Leaders

Many politicians have gone through the statehouse doors over the past 150 years.

Abraham Lincoln made three visits to the Ohio Statehouse. His second stop was when he learned he had been elected president.

“He learned while visiting with the governor that the returns had come in, and that he indeed had been elected by the electoral college to become the 16th president,” historian Ed Lenz said.

While on that trip, Lincoln also posed for one of only two busts made during his presidency.

His third visit was more somber, 10TV’s Tracy Townsend reported.

“More than 50,000 people passed by to get one last look at the assassinated president,” Lenz said.

Lincoln’s body was transported through seven states before being taken back to his hometown of Springfield, Ill.

Lincoln was not the only assassinated president to be honored at the Ohio Statehouse, Townsend reported.

A statue of the 35th U.S. president William McKinley also stands at the statehouse.

“A collection was taken up by school children of Ohio for a monument to the late president,” Lenz said.

Other presidents and leaders from Ohio are depicted on the statue known as, “These Are My Jewels.”

Statehouse historian Chris Matheny said that the statue is made up of 13 tiles for the original 13 colonies and is surrounded by three rings.

“The first ring represents the territory Ohio used to be a part of,” Matheny rsaid.

The second and third rings represented the Louisiana Purchase and the Mexican-American War.

The statehouse was first modernized in 1888 when electric lights were added to the Supreme Court Room.

In the early 1900s, workers completed the statehouse annex, which later was connected to the main part of the statehouse by the atrium.

In the 1960s, work on a new office building for state workers, which would become the Rhodes Office Tower, was completed, and a parking garage was installed underneath the building.

The statehouse was and will remain for the people, Matheny said.

“The rotunda is the people’s room between all these branches of government,” Matheny said.

The statehouse offers free guided tours weekdays from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. and on Saturdays and Sundays from noon until 3 p.m.

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