Actually rebuilding the nations Capitol Building in washington, d. C. As he was undertaking the rebuilding of the capitol after it was substantially destroyed by the british during the war of 1812, he was designing our building. When maine gained statehood in 1820, our First Capital city, the city of portland, that was a temporary arrangement and there were several reasons for that. Chief among those was the fact that people felt portland was too far south to remain our capital for very long. So on february 24, 1827, governor lincoln signed the bill law naming augusta as the new capital. The capital was moved here to augusta upon completion of this building. The First Official use of this building, which was actually the first legislative session happened on january 4, 1832. Now, since its been here such a long time shouldnt be too surprising that thereve been some changes made to the original building. In 1890, the rear section of the building was added. So where you see the floor tiles change, from that point back is the 1890 addition. State government had outgrown the original building. So having to accommodate all the needs of state government, some of the original had to be taken apart first. The original small wood frame dome was removed. The roof over the entire original building was removed. The front wall and front facade were left intact. So whats out there today in front of the building is original from 1829. Another original feature of the state house is the floor upon which we are now standing. This floor is italian marble. And the tiles on the floor are individual tiles that are tiny, tiny individual tiles which were laid on this floor one tiny little tile at a time. It took approximately a year and a half to lay all the tiles on this floor. Occupying the space here in the middle of the hall of flags is a bust of a gentleman who was governor of maine from 1921 toy 1925 but hes honored for more than just public service. Hes honored for extremely generous gift to the state of maine. Until his death in 1969 governor bax ter purchased using his own money, fabulously rich, purchased about 200,000 acres of land, which he then of course gave to the state of maine. And that land now comprises a state park which is appropriately named in his honor. According to his wishes theres hunting allowed in only about 25 of the park. He intended it as a wildlife refuge. This is a portrait of the grand lady from maine Margaret Chase smith. She had the distinction of having been the first woman in this country ever to have been elected to both houses of the United States congress. In 1940 she was elected to the u. S. House of representatives. She served there until 1948 when she was elected to the United States senate. Thereby becoming the first woman to have accomplished that feat. When she was elected to the senate in 1948, she became the first woman ever elected to the senate as well. She also had the distinction of having been the first woman in this country ever to have her name placed in nomination for president of the United States by Major Political party. That happened at the Republican National convention in San Francisco in 1964. That year the republican nomination went to the senator from arizona, senator barry goldwater. But the mere fact that so many people thought so highly of this lady was quite significant that they wanted her to run for president. For a lady, for a lady in 1964, and the fact she was from maine gives us here in maine a great deal of pride in that lady. This is a portrait of a gentleman named thomas bracket reed. A congressman from maine served in the us house of representatives in the late 1800s. Several terms as speaker of house of representatives. Was an extremely powerful speaker earning himself the tit title czar reed. Many of the rules he instituted as speaker of the house are still instituted today. I especially like congressman bracket for his wit. He was once asked would he attend a funeral of a political rival. He said, no, but i do approve of it. Another time he was asked if he thought his party might nominate him for president. The republican party. He said they could certainly do worse and very likely they will. And finally a fellow congressman at one point very pompously stated, well, id rather be right than be president. And speaker reed said, while the gentleman neednt worry, hell never be either. So he had a very asur bik wit. We are in the house chamber. Means house consists of 151 members. Each member of the house represents about 86 or 8,700 people. The representatives serve twoyear terms. And in maine we have term limits. They can serve no more than four consecutive twoyear terms at the end of eight years they are termed out. The term limit law was passed in 1992, took effect in 1996. So its a result of a citizen initiative. It is a citizen legislature. We have people from all walks of life who serve here. We have teachers, people who work in paper mills, so the population of the legislature is very good mirror of the population of the state of maine. When the speaker moves an item, he uses a gavel to move that item. And very often the speaker will its a wooden gavel, and very often the speaker will be a little too aggressive and break the gavel. And because business cannot be conducted without a gavel, then the clerk of the house who stands here is prepared with additional gavels in her drawer. Maines senate consists of 35 senators. The districts are portioned according to population. Theres a quaint rule in the senate that prohibits anyone from sitting in a senators chair other than the senator to whom that chair is assigned. Even staff people when they come in to work at the desks may not sit in a senators chair. If they want to sit as a straighten out the desks, they have to move the chair out and bring in their own chair to sit down. Were standing in the rotunda. The rotunda is on the third floor of the state house. And in the rotunda we have portraits of governors. We call this the governors rotation because the immediate past governor always has his portrait displayed right here. This is our immediate past governor. When governor lapage is no longer in office, his portrait will come here. Governor baldacci will move over and all the governors will move over to make room. Thats why we call it the governors rotation. This is a portrait of governor mckernen married to one of our two United States senators olympia snow, whose picture can be seen on the credenza on which governor is leaning, that is a photograph of he, his wife Olympia Snowe and his son from a previous marriage who tragically died when he was in college from a previously undetected heart condition. As we tour through the building, we see certainly in comparison to other buildings of this type throughout the country, other state houses, other Capitol Buildings that our building is somewhat plain, somewhat simple. Theres no opulence at the maine state house. Theres nothing at the maine state house that will take a persons breath away. But its very simple nature speaks volumes for the pure puritan ethic. The perfect word for a description for someone from maine is frugal. Thats an excellent portrait or picture of the people of maine and the entire