Collection:LPB

Genre: Documentary

Place Covered: Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, 30.4466006, -91.1912217

Copyright Holder: Louisiana Educational Television Authority

Date Issued: 2011-06-6

Duration: 00:28:35

Subjects: Louisiana's Old State Capitol (Baton Rouge, La.) | Historic buildings | HISTORIC PRESERVATION | History | Museums | Louisiana. Legislature | Louisiana Governors | Civil War | Long, Huey Pierce, 1893-1935

Contributors:

• Whinham, Charlie Host
• Whinham, Charlie Producer
• Crews, Keith Photographer
• Allen, Gary Photographer
• Whinham, Charlie Photographer
• Haase, Carol Interviewee
• Durusau, Mary Interviewee
• Courtney, Bob Interviewee
• Schedler, Tom Interviewee
• McKeithen, Fox Speaker
• Edwards, Edwin Speaker
• Foster, Mike Speaker
• Smith, Carl Interviewee

A 2011 documentary featuring host Charlie Whinham’s tour of Louisiana’s Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge. With the help of Old State Capitol tour guide Carol Haase, Old State Capitol Director Mary Durusau, former First Assistant Secretary of State Bob Courtney, and Secretary of State Tom Schedler, Whinham traces the history of this historic building, including its completion in 1850, its survival of a destructive fire during the Civil War, its first restoration in 1882, its fall into disrepair following the building of the new State Capitol in the early 1930s, the massive restoration effort of the early 1990s, and its re-opening as a Museum of Political and Governmental History in 1994. Whinham also highlights some of the major events that have taken place at the Old State Capitol, including the Louisiana Legislature’s vote to secede from the Union on January 26, 1861, and the attempted impeachment of Governor Huey P. Long in 1929. Carl Smith, the building’s chief maintenance engineer, also takes Whinham on a behind-the-scenes tour of the area above the ceiling’s glass dome and the building’s roof, including a spectacular view of the Mississippi River and downtown Baton Rouge.