User:Sam Berton/One Hour Translation

Hills Capitol
The legislature voted in 1810 to move the capital again, and moved the seat of government to Harrisburg in October 1812 onto the land given by Harris. An additional 10 acre was also purchased from United States Senator William Maclay. The legislature met in the old Dauphin County courthouse for the next decade until a new capitol was constructed. A competition was held to determine the design of the capitol starting in 1816, which "was the first formal contest for [designing] an American statehouse." The designs submitted, including one from William Strickland, were rejected as being too expensive. Another contest was started in January 1819. Of the seventeen designs submitted, two were selected as semifinalists. One was from Harrisburg architect Stephen Hills and the other was from the designer of the Washington Monument, Robert Mills; Hills' design was selected. Hills had designed a "red-brick, Federal-style" capitol to "architecturally represent the function of democratic government." Construction began on the Hills Capitol in 1819 and it was completed in 1822. The capitol's construction and subsequent furnishing was estimated to have cost $244,500 ($ in 2024 dollars). The Hills Capitol was visited by famous people, including the Marquis de Lafayette in 1825 and Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, (later King Edward VII) in 1860. Abraham Lincoln visited the capitol twice, once in 1861 as president-elect, and, again in 1865, to lie in state after his assassination. Pennsylvania's collection of Civil War battle flags, which were accumulated in 1866, was moved from the State Arsenal to the second floor of the capitol in 1872. The flags were moved, again, in 1895 to the Executive, Library and Museum Building. On February 2, 1897, around noon, smoke was discovered coming from the Lieutenant Governor's office. By early evening, the Hills Capitol had been reduced to a "smoldering mass of debris".