Tennessee State Capitol

William Strickland died on April 7, 1854, before the Capitol was finished. The year before, he had designed a vault in the building's exterior wall at ground level as his own tomb, and he was buried there; the Capitol commission chairman, Samuel Morgan, lies in the southeast corner. President James K. Polk and his wife Sarah are buried in a tomb on the northeast grounds, moved there in 1893 from their home, Polk Place. A statue of Sam Davis, a Confederate soldier called the Boy Hero of the Confederacy, stands on the southwest lawn.

What the plaque says

Tennessee State Capitol Designed by William Strickland, noted Philadelphia architect who also designed the tower of Independence Hall. Construction was commenced in 1845 and completed 1859. Strickland died in 1854 and is entombed in the north portico. His son Francis, supervised construction from 1854 to 1857. Slaves and convicts quarried and transported limestone for the Capitol, which was used as a fortress during the Civil War. President and Mrs. James K. Polk are buried on the east lawn.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tennessee State Capitol — steps away
  William Strickland's Greek Revival capitol on Nashville's Capitol Hill, finished in 1859 and built from the bottom up with the labor of enslaved men.
• Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library — 0.2 mi
  A room in the downtown library with a circular lunch counter, a timeline and oral histories of the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, a few blocks from the stores where they began.
• Ryman Auditorium — 0.4 mi
  The 1892 brick tabernacle in downtown Nashville that was the Grand Ole Opry's home from 1943 to 1974, now a National Historic Landmark and working concert hall.
• National Museum of African American Music — 0.4 mi
  A downtown Nashville museum, opened in 2021, tracing gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and hip-hop through Black history from 1619 to 2016.

More markers nearby

• Edwin W. Craig — steps away
• War Memorial Auditorium Building — steps away
• The Nashville Slave Market — steps away
• Morris Memorial Building — steps away