Delaware State Capitol - Dover

From our hotel about twenty miles east of Philadelphia, we set out on my planned "morning loop" to Dover, Annapolis and back to add two more capitol buildings to our list.  We fought the traffic through Philadelphia, took I-95 over the Girard Point Bridge and soon were entering Delaware.


Delaware was a pleasant break from the eastern seaboard megalopolis that extends from Boston through Philadelphia.  It offers corn fields and barns and much of the state has a pleasant rural feel to it.  That "welcome"sign was actually encountered later as we exited the state toward Maryland.  We had driven through some Amish farm country at that point.


Once we reached Dover, we quickly located the capitol building which, in this state, is known as the Delaware Legislative Hall.  It is one of the least pretentious of all the capitols.


There is little marble and granite.  Instead, a simple wooden stairway leads to the legislative galleries.


The two galleries are equally simple.


The artwork is equally modest and colonial in style.


The painting on the right is of Caesar Rodney. You may have seen him on the back of the Delaware State Quarter.  Rodney made a famous overnight ride to Philadelphia to break a tie vote declaring U.S. independence in 1776. (Read David McCullough's John Adams for a very interesting view of the revolutionary period.)


We looked at a few more historic buildings near the capitol and then had a sandwich at the nearby historic Governor's Club before heading to Annapolis, Maryland.