Alabama — The Clock

images courtesy of Ken Signorello
through a Creative Commons Deed

Standing on the front of the portico roof, the clock is a very visible and memorable feature, especially with its black face against the white capitol building. When it was first built, the capitol's clock was the town clock.

An Association
Somehow a clock belonging to the state that is first in an alphabetical list is an easy association for me. The 'first' simply becomes a time thing.

Statuary
A few state capitols (KY, NJ, OK, WV) besides California's have ornaments somewhere above the ends of their front portico roofs, which means the general area where those are pictured above. As the images below show, California's are two different statues of mounted horses with a bear or a buffalo. The other states have decorative shapes (urns, standards, etc.) except Oklahoma's (griffins, I think), which are mirror images of each other. They are easily distinguished from these, even at a distance.

statuary images courtesy of
gb1k

 
Finally, An Association
The fictional (for our purposes) Native American poses of the statues on the portico roof and the source of the name "California" being a work of fiction make a credible, if lengthy, association. Hopefully the stories help make it memorable!

The tricky part of this association is that the statues have not always been there. They were temporarily removed during two lengthy restorations finished around 1906 and 1982. Certainly the statues will be in most images, though.

two images
at left
courtesy of
Andrew

 
A Real Bit of History
The name "California" comes from a work of fiction. A popular Spanish romance novel, "Las Sergas de Esplandián," written by Garcí Rodríguez Ordóñez de Montalvo and published in 1510, tells of an island named California where the inhabitants are all women much like the Amazons, and the beautiful queen is named Califia. The Spanish explorers surely were familiar with this story when they explored the Baja peninsula and gave it the name of California, thinking it, too, was an island, and probably dreaming of those women. Little did they know their California would be a huge territory some day.

What I Learned in School
My American History classes taught a little about the lives of the Native Americans in the northwest regions (which I admit could be in error). They were rather isolated from the rest of the continent by mountain ranges and the ocean, and never saw a horse before the European settlers arrived with them during the gold rush of 1849. Those same classes told of the buffalo (bison) that roamed the country from the Rocky Mountains east. Being west of the Rockies, the northern California Natives would not have encountered bison.

If what I learned in school of western California Indian life is true, the statues over the portico of the California capitol, a male Indian on horseback being attacked by a bear, and a female Indian also on horseback in conflict with a bison, must be depicting fiction IF (and that's a big 'if') they only represent Native Americans of the Sacramento area before 1849. I'm sure they do not, since this is a state building and not a city or county one, but for the purposes of this association we need to pretend they do. So, the statues represent fictional situations to us.

It is high over the center of the entrance and known as "Progress of the State" or the "Quadriga." The gilded statue of four horses, two women, a chariot, and a charioteer are certainly unique, and no other capitol has a gilded statue in that location. By the way, if you take a tour in good weather, you can go out on the terrace by it and see just how huge and gorgeous the statue is.

An Association
The large, gilded statue over the entrance must be the "Quadriga" with a charioteer who would be a warrior or another grand man; Saint Paul was certainly a grand man; St. Paul is the capital city of Minnesota. Though Saint Paul probably never drove a chariot, it works for me!

image courtesy of
Ashley Tan, United States

The quadriga figures are made of sheets of copper hammered around a steel frame and then gilded with 23-½ karat gold leaf.

North Carolina — The Honeysuckle or Crown

The dome of this capitol carries a decorative ring of classic design that has been called a "honeysuckle" and a "crown" in the descriptions I've read. No matter what you prefer to call it, the ring is very obvious.

The copper dome might appear copper-colored, black, or green depending on how long any restoration work has weathered. I am not aware of any planned work, but one never knows!

image courtesy of
Charles Woodman

image courtesy of
Charles Woodman

An Association
The first time I saw a photo of the North Carolina capitol, the honeysuckle crown reminded me of an ashtray - the fancy kind with prongs or ornaments to hold the burning cigarettes. An ashtray is for cigarettes and their cousins, and Raleigh is a very old brand name of a cigarette, as well as the name of North Carolina's capital city. So, ashtray - cigarette - Raleigh brand cigarettes - Raleigh, North Carolina.