Cass Gilbert’s West Virginia State Capitol by Ann Thomas Wilkins, David G. Wilkins (review)

Perhaps in no other state does a capitol so thoroughly impress and unify than in West Virginia. Unlike its domeless, more urban cousin in neighboring Ohio or its less conspicuous counterpart to the west in Kentucky, the West Virginia State Capitol serves as a central point for Mountain State governance and citizenship. Few viewpoints in Charleston do not include the building’s golden dome. State leaders made the capitol the focal point for West Virginia’s sesquicentennial celebration in 2013, even using its facade as a screen for a three-dimensional video tribute. Most wonder how a state so small could manage a building so large in size and classical in design, and how a state government in the midst of pre– and post–Wall Street crash turmoil could afford its construction.

Retired classics professor Ann Thomas Wilkins and professor emeritus of the history of art and architecture David G. Wilkins address these questions and many others in Cass Gilbert’s West Virginia State Capitol. The authors capably recount the capitol’s long and, at times, frustrating eleven-year selection, design, and construction. Of course, the Wilkinses are not the first to explore this topic. State-commissioned pictorial histories exist, and Mountain State journalist Jim Wallace recently published a politically oriented history of the capitol. Cass Gilbert’s West Virginia State Capitol is a welcome addition to the literature, as it melds political history with architectural insight and biography to tell the building’s story through the eyes of renowned lead architect Cass Gilbert.

The authors provide contextual bookends to their narrative in the prologue and final two chapters. In the prologue, contributing authors Bernard and Mary Louise Soldo Schultz discuss the impact of Beaux-Arts architecture on Gilbert and his resulting belief that proportion rather than ornamentation was the key to beauty. The architect and his designs, including the capitol and US Supreme Court building, ran against the increasingly popular modernist grain in the early twentieth century. Chapters eight and nine offer a detailed architectural evaluation of the capitol and its place in comparison to other, more utilitarian and modernist capitols built around the same time.

When selected in 1921 to be the architect, Gilbert stated that “I want to make this capitol building the crowning work of my life” (228). The great architect’s hopeful tone at the outset belies the innumerable political, financial, and public relations challenges he faced. The authors skillfully recount Gilbert’s appointment, the selection of the capitol site, the design phase, the construction of the wings, the completion of the domed main building, and the dedication. At every step of the way, West Virginia’s funding—and political—challenges buffeted the esteemed architect. Rival professionals, influential politicians, and the notoriously partisan Mountain State press challenged his credentials, slowed his progress, questioned his work ethic, and forced design compromises. In spite of these obstacles—and the fact that the project lasted “nine years longer than it was originally intended”—Cass Gilbert delivered a completed West Virginia State Capitol, publicly dedicated on June 20, 1932 (187).

Cass Gilbert’s West Virginia State Capitol is an instructive fusion of biography, architectural criticism, and Mountain State history. The Wilkinses add another layer to the contentious political history of post–World War I West Virginia. Even the most cynical Mountain State historians will find something surprising—and illuminating—in Gilbert’s experiences. The authors skillfully showcase the architect’s personal papers, correspondence, and architectural renderings to provide insight into Cass Gilbert, the man and professional. Their overall secondary and primary research is solid enough to overcome some minor issues with political speculation in the early chapters.

The book is logically organized and attractively appointed. The authors include enjoyable opening reflections from Governor Earl Ray Tomblin and West Virginia state senator Brooks McCabe and a useful epilogue from Chad Proudfoot covering developments on the capitol grounds since the dedication. Students of architecture will find...