[4] Alabama has had five political capitals and four purpose-built capitol buildings during its history since it was designated as a territory of the United States.

Delegates meeting as the Montgomery Convention in the Senate Chamber drew up the Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States on February 4, 1861.

The central core of the building and the east wing to the structure's rear, is three stories built over a below-grade basement.

This property, atop what was then known as Goat Hill due to its use as a pasture, was chosen as the site for the new state capitol structure.

[11] Button's designed building was stuccoed brick, with two full stories set over a rusticated raised basement.

A two-story monumental portico with six Composite columns, topped by a broad pediment, was centered on the middle five bays of the front elevation.

A central dome, 40 feet (12 m) in diameter, sat directly on a supporting ring at the main roof level behind the portico.

The small dome was crowned with an elaborate Cupola lantern on top patterned after the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates.

[11] The new building used the original remaining brick foundations and general layout of Button's previous structure, with modifications by Holt.

Figh had previously completed extensive brickwork on the William Nichols-designed campus lay-out of buildings for the new University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa.

In proportion to the capitol building, the clock appears as a square white box with black dials and crowned with a gabled roof.

With the secession of Alabama and six other Deep South states and subsequent formation of the Confederacy in February 1861, the building served as its first capitol until May 22, 1861.

[1] A commemorative brass marker in the shape of a six-pointed star is set into the marble floor of the front portico at the precise location where Jefferson Davis stood on February 18, 1861, to take his oath of office as the only President of the Confederate States of America.

"[4] The new constitution enshrined "White Supremacy by Law" and consolidated and centralized power at the Capitol and away from local county and town governments.

[4] In 1961 Governor John Patterson flew a seven-starred version of the former "Stars and Bars" over the capitol for several days in celebration of the centennial of the American Civil War.

His successor, the 45th Governor George C. Wallace (1919-1998, served three non-consecutive terms: 1963-1967, 1971-1979, 1983-1987), attracted national attention, by raising the rebel Confederate Battle Flag of 1863 over the Capitol dome on April 25, 1963, as a symbol of defiance to the federal government; this was the date of his meeting with visiting United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968, served 1961-1963), (the younger brother of the 35th President John F. Kennedy back in the White House in Washington, D.C.) to discuss the racial desegregation of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, in the ongoing national civil rights movement and social struggle since the mid-1950s.

Several African American legislators and members of the state chapter of the NAACP were arrested in 1988 after attempting to remove the flag.

[17] On May 7, 2009, the legislature reconvened in the capitol building for the first time since September 20, 1985, due to flooding in the State House.

[18] The original core of the 1850-1851 building, as well as the subsequent additions of 1885, 1906, 1912, and extensive 1985-1992 renovations project, is essentially Greek Revival architecture in style.

Both of the adjoining side-wings for the Senate and House feature two-story hexastyle Ionic entrance porticoes on their north and south elevations, respectively.

The west and east facades of these wings also feature decorative two-story hexastyle pseudo-porticoes with engaged Ionic columns.

The next major room on the ground floor is the old Supreme Court Chamber, part of the original capitol plan.

[20] The dome interior is decorated with eight painted murals by Roderick MacKenzie, a Scottish-born artist who relocated from the British Isles / United Kingdom to the American South and Alabama.

[9] The murals depict the hostile meeting of Hernando de Soto and Tuskaloosa in 1540, the establishment of the colonial French capital of Mobile by Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville from 1702 to 1711, the surrender of William Weatherford to Andrew Jackson in 1814, pioneers settling the Alabama wilderness in 1816, the drafting of the Constitution of Alabama in 1818, wealth and leisure during the antebellum era from 1840 to 1860, the inauguration of Confederate President Jefferson Davis on the capitol steps in 1861, and, finally, prosperity following the development of resources from 1874 to 1930.

[3] Other major features of the grounds include the marble steps leading to the front portico, the Confederate Memorial Monument and the Avenue of Flags.

[4] The principal access to the capitol building was originally via a long flight of steps leading to the front portico.

Prominent protesters included Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, Coretta Scott King, Ralph Bunche, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, John Lewis, James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, and Joan Baez.

[31] A delegation from the protestors attempted to see Governor George Wallace to give him a petition that asked for an end to racial discrimination in Alabama.

We must have the right to vote; we must have equal protection of the law and an end to police brutality.These steps remain as they were in 1965, although repairs were made during the 1992 renovation of the building.

The flagpoles are arranged in a semi-circle between the Ionic portico of the capitol building's south wing and Washington Avenue.