Massachusetts State House

Homestalgia Archive

Community memory · 1798–today · Aug 7, 2026

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The State House was finished in 1798 on land that had been John Hancock's cow pasture, designed by Charles Bulfinch when he was in his thirties. Paul Revere's company covered the wooden dome in copper in 1802; it was gilded in 23-karat gold in 1874, and painted gray during World War II so it would not guide bombers. Inside hangs the Sacred Cod, a carved fish that has represented the fishing industry since the 1700s and was famously stolen by Harvard Lampoon students in 1933. Oliver Wendell Holmes called the building the hub of the solar system, which is where Boston's nickname comes from.

Source: Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, State House Tours and State House historical materials; The Harvard Crimson, archival coverage of the Sacred Cod theft, 1933; Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 1858