Charles Bulfinch's career in public buildings is generally believed to begin right here, with the Old State House, completed in 1796. Managed today by the Office of Legislative Management of the Connecticut General Assembly, this building wears layers of history in its fabric. Its exterior and the Senate have been restored to the original Federal style, while the Representative’s chamber remains Victorian and the halls and courtroom show a Colonial Revival touch.
In form it recalls the Town Hall of Liverpool, England, built in the mid-18th century and perhaps one Bulfinch knew from an architecture book, yet every material here came from the United States. Look at the first story: twenty feet high and hewn of Portland, Connecticut brownstone. Above it, the second and third stories rise in brick set in a Flemish bond, and the cornice is wooden.
The house you face has not always been as it appears now—originally it had neither balustrade nor cupola; a balustrade was added in the early 19th century for the protection of firemen, and the cupola was constructed in 1827 with its bell. Follow the brownstone base up through Flemish brick to the cupola added in 1827.