Book review: Louisiana’s Old State Capitol

Constructed on the riverfront more than 150 years ago, Baton Rouge’s Old State Capitol seems an immutable piece of our city’s downtown landscape. So when retired teacher Carol Haase began working as a tour guide there in the 1990s, she was surprised to find out how little was really known about the building. The manual given to her was short and full of conflicting accounts. A teacher to the core, Haase attempted to sort fact from fiction, and her investigation wound up consuming her spare time for five years.

The resulting book, Louisiana’s Old State Capitol, is a meticulously researched wealth of information, as she chronicles the many times that fires, neglect, and political infighting nearly destroyed the grand old building—and how it managed to rise from the ashes every time, grander than before.

Haase’s enthusiasm for her subject is clear and infectious, and she delights in sharing the more colorful of her discoveries. The building was always a subject of controversy; passions ran high even before it was constructed. One of Haase’s favorite stories is how architect James Dakin, angry over the sub-par building materials provided, began tearing bricks out of the walls with his bare hands. When the contractor approached him, Dakin threw a punch, and the two men were arrested and fined for fighting. Other stories have an air of mystery, such as the discovery of human remains in a drained pond on the property, or the presence of a secret “graffiti room” in one of the towers.

But most of all, the book reveals how the Capitol’s construction and subsequent renovations were governed by the same political forces that shaped our state: corruption, disaster, revival, and reformation. They are all a part of our narrative and the Old State Capitol. The building Mark Twain once criticized as “pathetic” is in fact a physical representation of the city’s history and an anchor to the past. And after the ravages of Hurricane Gustav, it also reminds us that no matter the damage, Baton Rouge can always rebuild.