The famous Boston State House, fronting on Beacon Street at the summit
of the hill, stands upon ground which, in the eighteenth century, was
John Hancock's cow-pasture, his residence, for many years alongside,
having been replaced by the ornamental "swell-fronts" of the Somerset
Club. This rounded construction, known as the swell-front, is a
distinctive feature of the old-time Boston residential architecture,
and in many buildings the effect is heightened by the luxuriant
overrunning vines of the Boston ivy, which is especially fine in the
autumn. A Corinthian portico fronts the State House, which was built
about the beginning of the nineteenth century, but has since been
repeatedly enlarged, the latest extension being completed in 1898, so
that the whole building is now four hundred by two hundred and twelve
feet, the lantern on the dome rising one hundred and fifty feet. Upon
the terrace in front are statues of Daniel Webster and Horace Mann.
The eastern side of the last extension has a small park, and here, on
top of Beacon Hill, has been erected a reproduction, practically on
the original site, of the Beacon Monument, which was put there in 1790
to commemorate the success of the Revolution, but was removed in 1812.
Within the State House is the Memorial Hall, containing the
battle-flags of Massachusetts regiments and other historical relics.
Portraits, busts and statues of the great men of Massachusetts adorn
the interior rooms. From the lantern surmounting the dome is the
finest view of Boston, with the mass of estuaries penetrating the land
on all sides, the harbor and islands, and over the neighboring country
for many miles. In the Representatives' Chamber hangs, high on the
wall, one of the precious relics of the Old Bay State, the noted
carved codfish, typifying a great industry. In the original State
House preceding this one, down on Washington Street, in the heart of
the older town, on March 17, 1785, Representative Rowe--who is also
said to have been the suggester of throwing the tea overboard in
Boston harbor--according to the minutes moved, "That leave might be
given to hang up the representation of a codfish in the room where the
House sit, as a memorial of the importance of the cod-fishery to the
welfare of the Commonwealth, as had been usual formerly." Leave was
accordingly given, and this emblem was brought in time to the present
State House and hung on the wall, and it has always been an object of
interest to visitors, not only as emblematic of sundry fishery
problems that perplex the statesmen, but also as recalling a question
always of lively interest in New England and elsewhere, "Does the
codfish salt the ocean, or the ocean salt the codfish?" Another great
treasure is held by the State Library, which has a hundred thousand
volumes; and the chief of its possessions, exhibited under glass, is
the "History of the Plimouth Plantation," popularly known as the "Log
of the 'Mayflower,'" written by Governor William Bradford. This
manuscript, discovered in London in 1846, was presented to
Massachusetts in 1898.