State House Commission

The series consists of pages from an album of photographs of the construction of the Mississippi State Capitol building, taken between 1900 and 1903. The album was probably one of several given to various officials and dignitaries in 1903 to mark the completion of the building. In addition to exterior photos of the construction of the building, a number of the images document the completed interior chambers, corridors, and staircases. Also included are a brief introductory description of the new building, a list of State House Commission members, a photograph of the supervising and assistant supervising architects, an index of the photographs, a floor plan of one floor of the building (restricted item), descriptions of the pediment and corner stone, and one exterior view of the Old Capitol building.

The series consists of minutes of meetings of the State House Commission recorded March 17, 1900, to April 7, 1904. The Commission was created by Mississippi's legislature in February 1900 and empowered to plan for and facilitate the construction of a new state capitol building "so planned and designed to furnish suitable and proper quarters for all the state departments of the state government." The act of creation instructed that the building be located on the site of the former state penitentiary in Jackson and that its total cost including furniture and fixtures not exceed $1,000,000 (Laws of Mississippi, 1900, Chapter 55). The Commission's membership consisted of the governor as ex officio president, the attorney general, and three commissioners. Its original members were Governor A. H. Longino, Attorney General Monroe McClurg, J. C. Hardy, Phil A. Rush, and W. G. Stovall. L. T. Fitzhugh Jr. was appointed secretary by the governor.

Construction began on the new capitol building in March 1901 and was completed in July 1903 at a cost of $1,093,641. The final recorded meeting of the Commission took place on April 7, 1904, and was attended by Governor James K. Vardaman and Commissioners R. H. Thompson, R. A. Dean, and W. G. Stovall. In March 1904 the legislature created a "permanent capitol commission" consisting of the governor, secretary of state, insurance commissioner, and state revenue agent. It assumed care and supervision over the new capitol building, its furnishings and grounds (Laws, 1904, Chapter 109).

The single bound volume containing the minutes of the State House Commission was scanned by the MDAH Image and Sound Section in August 2009. Pages 606-607 are blank and glued together and therefore were not scanned. The 626 pages of the volume are presented here as 313 JPEG tile sets.