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Ohio's statehouse was renovated at a cost of $114-million dollars. It has modern "safety features and technological advancements". There is a reproduction stained-glass skylight "with a replica of the 1861 Seal of Ohio" I was amazed to learn that this replica was financed by schoolchildren throughout Ohio!
The Statehouse has Faux finishes, leaded ceilings, and mostly reproduction furniture (1800s).
This building is one of the nation's finest examples of Greek Revival architecture! Since early Ohioans wanted this capitol to symbolize the state's democratic form of government, they looked to the architecture of ancient Greek city-states; thus, they based the "Ohio Statehouse on the design of ancient Greek temples."
The Statehouse has a Ground Floor with the Map Room, The Crypt, The Capitol Cafe, Museum Shop, Travel & Tourism Information Center, and The Light Courts.
It also has the First Floor with The George Washington Williams Memorial Room, The Rotunda, Governor's Ceremonial Office, The Atrium, and the Grand Stair Hall.
The Second Floor houses the Senate Chamber, the House Chamber, North & South Hearing rooms.
The literature says that the Statehouse serves as the seat of government, a working office building, a special event venue, an educational center, and a historic landmark..
As you tour this beautiful building, you will see how it serves in all those ways.
The Ohio Historical Society provides guided tours and displays historical artifacts in the Statehouse Education and Visitors Center.
FreeGuided tours from Third St. entrance
Monday-Friday 9:30-3:15 (every 15 minutes
Saturday-Sunday 12:30, 2, and 3
Self-guided tours also available Monday-Friday 9-5; Saturday-Sunday 11-4. Takes about one and a half hours. Leave a Comment Phone: 614/752-6350, or 888/OHIO-123Directions: Bounded by High, State, Broad, and Third Streets
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Photographs give you a visual of Capitol Square surrounding the Capitol..
1st Photograph
My personal favorite is called "These are My Jewels", & it's the oldest monument on the Statehouse grounds. Designed & built by Levi Tucker Scofield for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. The monument was moved to the capitol after the Exposition in 1894. The female figure at the top is Cornelia, & she's saying that these heroes are her jewels. The jewels are Secretary of War Stanton, Secretary of the Treasury Chase, Presidents: Garfield, Hayes, & Grant, & Generals Sherman & Sheridan.
2nd Photograph
The Christopher Columbus Discovery Monument that was designed by Alphons Pelzer. A 1892 statue, designed to commemorate the capital city's namesake & the 400th anniversary of his voyage to America, was moved to the Statehouse in 1932.
3rd Photograph
This statue is called The Peace Monument by sculptor, Bruce Wilder Saville. The Women's Relief Corps of Ohio in 1923 commemorate the men & women who served the country during the Civil War.
4th Photograph
This photo represents the 4 cannons on display. They are cast from bronze & weigh almost 1 ton each! Manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1964. These are Civil War period guns, & they "remind us of the nearly 35,000 Ohio men who gave their lives in the service of national unity".
5th Photograph
This last photograph represents The Underground Railroad in Ohio. It tells us that the "Underground Railroad" was not a railroad, nor was it underground. Instead, it was a "system of loosely connected safe havens where those escaping the brutal conditions of slavery were sheltered, fed, clothed, nursed, concealed, disguised, & instructed during their journey to freedom". It goes further, "Ohio's history has been permanently shaped by the thousands of runaway slaves passing through or finding permanent residence in this state." Leave a Comment Directions: Bounded by High, State, Broad, and Third Streets
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Ohio Veterans Plaza honors all the Ohio men and women who served our country since World War II and those who will serve in the future. The Plaza was dedicated in 1998 and was the first veterans memorial erected on the Statehouse grounds in over 55 years! Schooley Caldwell Associates designed it.
This plaza represents the completion of the Ohio Statehouse restoration.
What a lovely memorial it turned out to be...simple yet complex with its two curved Columbus limestone walls that are engraved with letters sent to families, friends, and loved ones from members of the armed forces. Many of these people did not make it home alive.
I selected two letters that I thought represent the "spirit" of this memorial, and you will find them in the second photograph.
The limestone walls are separated by an expanse of ground, a fountain, and 88 flags representing the 88 counties in Ohio. As you can see from the photographs, it's quite impressive. Leave a Comment Directions: Bounded by High, State, Broad, and Third Streets
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A friend of Jill's told us about the Topiary Garden: "A Sunday Afternoon On The Island of La Grande Jatte" located at the Old Deaf School Park. It's located on the near east side of Columbus, and this exhibit is the only current topiary interpretation of a master's painting. The largest figure stands 12 feet tall! The original painting I have seen many times before at the Art Institute of Chicago.
The real pond is representing the River Seine. For the best way to see the painting as Seurat saw it, stand left of the bronze plaque on the stone slab in the path.
This exhibit includes 54 topiary people, eight topiary boats, three topiary dogs, a topiary monkey and topiary cat plus a real pond that recreates a living scene from Georges Seurat's famous work. We saw it in early May, but the best time to see the fullest effects are from mid-July through November.
It is the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department that takes care of this incredible piece of garden art. James T. Mason came up with the concept.
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The Old Deaf School
In 1834, The Old Deaf School was erected on the Park's site.
This building that is here now was the 3rd building (erected in 1899), and today it is used as offices. I learned that the faces above its portals are portraits of children attending the school!
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The Topiary Park Museum Shop
1998 marks the date of the Topiary Park Museum Shop/Visitors Center (on the Town Street entrance). It has restrooms, drinking fountains, a museum as well as a gift shop,
Open:
April through December Leave a Comment Phone: 614-645-0197Directions: East Town St. and Washington Avenue
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 The Columbus Museum Of Art by deecat
Just four blocks east of the State Capitol, you can enjoy a first-rate art museum, Columbus Museum of Art. It exhibits traveling works in addition to its own collections of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century American and European modern art (Monet, Picasso, Matisse, Renoir, Hopper, and O'Keeffe just to name a few).
While we were in Columbus (early May) American Impressionism was the featured exhibit.
The museum is open:
Tuesday-Sunday 10:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Thursdays: 10:00 a.m.-8:30 p.m.
Admission:
Members: Free
Adults: $6.00
Seniors: $4.00
Students: $4.00
Children 5 and under: FREE
ADMISSION IS FREE ON SUNDAYS!
Parking is avalable in the lot directly behind the museum. It is free for members, and it costs $3.00 for Nonmembers
Public transportation: COTA, the #10 line stops in front of the museum.
The Columbus Museum of Art offers tours, film series, lectures, special events for children, families and adults. Leave a Comment Address: 480 East Broad Street, Columbus, OhioPhone: 614/221-4848
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 Me at Riverwatch by jennwerner |
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 Chihuly with a Butterfly by debrannanLeave a Comment Address: 1777 East Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio 43203-2040Phone: (614) 645-TREE or (800) 214-PARKDirections: East of the downtown area.Website: http://www.fpconservatory.org
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Violet
Looking for something to do? Got some time to kill. Go to the Palace. The Columbus Square Palace Bowling Center that is. What a Blast. Normally on Thursday nights a group of us girls go out and sit at a bar. Well this was a night of fun to go bowling. Open bowling starts at 9 PM on week nights. The cost of shoe rental is $2.50. We bowled 2 games and rented shoes and it was 11.50 each. Very reasonable. They have tv screens and play music on them. The music is a good mix much to anyones taste in music. The scoring for the games is automatic and the lanes and bathrooms are very clean. There is food service and a full bar. Very nice and fun for all.
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Clearly, the Statehouse grounds memorial statues, the most imposing and thematically complex, if not symbolically complicated, is the "These Are My Jewels" statue located on the northwest corner of the property. See the link below for the complete symbolism according to Ohio statehouse historians, but basically, the female statue on top represents Cornelia, an aristocratic woman unadorned by jewels because her sons, Tiberius and Gaius, successful in politics and military, were her "jewels". Similarly proud of it's contribution of distinguished men in war, the figures on the base of this complex combination of granite and bronze statues include the original six Ohio men memorialized on the statue as it stood at the 1893 World Columbia Exposition in Chicago: Generals Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, James A. Garfield and Phillip Sheridan as well as Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase and Lincoln's Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Another Ohio president, the underachiever Ruther B. Hays, was added later by then Governor William McKinley when the statues were reassembled and rededicated at the present site in Columbus. Later, McKinley himself became perhaps Ohio's greatest contribution to its long list of mostly average American presidental contributions, but his even more eleborate and symbolically complex memorial is elsewhere on the statehouse grounds. I would consider the These Are My Jewels a must see memorial at the Ohio Statehouse. Leave a Comment
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 Franklin Park Conservatory by Stephen-KarenConn
Hours are Tues. - Sun: 10-3, and Wed: 10-8.
Admission: Adults - $6.50, Children - $3.50. Leave a Comment Address: 1777 East Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio 43203Phone: 614-645-8733Directions: Near Downtown Columbus. Click the web address below to find a map.Website: www.fpconservatory.org
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