BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana's Old State Capitol is opening a new exhibit commemorating the 25 years since the historic building was restored.
The permanent exhibit, unveiled Monday, is called "Castle on the River: The Evolution of Louisiana's Old State Capitol." It showcases the castle-shaped structure from its construction and its use as the seat of state government to its current use as a museum.
The Old State Capitol opened in 1852, but a fire destroyed it during the Civil War. An 1880 restoration added a stained-glass rotunda. The building was Louisiana's state capitol until 1932, when the much larger current state capitol sought by former Gov. Huey Long opened.
With the opening of the new capitol, the former one fell into disrepair. A three-year, $6 million restoration reopened the structure in 1994.
