About This Location
The gold-domed state capitol building completed in 1932, designed by architect Cass Gilbert. The Renaissance Revival limestone building features a dome that rises 293 feet and is actually taller than the United States Capitol dome.
The Ghost Story
The West Virginia State Capitol in Charleston is one of the most visually striking government buildings in America, its gold-leafed dome rising 293 feet above the banks of the Kanawha River -- five feet taller than the United States Capitol dome in Washington. Designed by architect Cass Gilbert and completed in 1932, the building replaced two previous capitols, the first of which burned in 1921 and the second of which was a temporary structure that also caught fire in 1927. The pattern of destruction that preceded the current building's construction set an ominous tone from the start.
The construction of the third and final capitol was a massive undertaking. The building stretches 535 feet in length and required years of labor from hundreds of workers. Legend whispers that not all of those workers survived to see the building's completion. The grand halls, soaring rotunda, and opulent corridors -- lined with Italian marble and illuminated by a hand-cut 10,080-piece Czechoslovakian crystal chandelier weighing two tons -- were built at a human cost that the official records may not fully capture. Workers who perished during the demanding construction project are said to remain within the walls they helped raise.
Security guards and maintenance staff who work the overnight shifts have reported encounters that defy easy explanation. Ghostly silhouettes have been observed moving through the corridors at night, figures that appear solid until they round a corner and vanish. Footsteps echo through the marble rotunda when the building is locked and empty. Doors that were secured at the end of the business day are found standing open in the morning, with no evidence of forced entry or mechanical failure.
The Capitol sits within a larger complex that includes surrounding government buildings, and the paranormal activity is not confined to the main structure alone. The Kanawha Valley itself has a long history of conflict and loss. During the Civil War, the Battle of Charleston was fought in September 1862 when Confederate forces under General William Loring attacked the Union garrison. The battle resulted in the Confederate capture of the city and significant casualties on both sides. A drummer boy from the Civil War era has been reported appearing across the Kanawha River, visible from the Capitol grounds, a spectral figure still keeping time for an army that marched through these streets more than 160 years ago.
Spring Hill Cemetery, which sprawls across 350 acres on the hillside above the Capitol Complex, is the largest cemetery in West Virginia and contains the remains of soldiers, governors, and ordinary citizens whose lives were intertwined with the building below. The proximity of so many dead to the seat of government has led some paranormal researchers to suggest that the Capitol functions as a kind of anchor point for spiritual energy -- a grand monument surrounded by the resting places of those who built, governed, and defended the state.
The US Ghost Adventures tour of Charleston includes the Capitol area on its route, and guides note that the building's regal beauty takes on a different character after dark. The two-ton crystal chandelier, which catches and scatters light so beautifully during the day, casts strange shadows when the building is lit only by emergency lighting. The marble floors, designed to convey permanence and authority, amplify every sound -- including sounds that have no visible source. Whatever restless spirits remain in the West Virginia State Capitol, they inhabit a building that was literally born from fire and built over the graves of the state's history.
