Governor William Miller asked U.S. senators James Turner and Nathaniel Macon to find the best sculptor for this work.

[7] In 1816, the state commissioned a copy of Gilbert Stuart's Lansdowne portrait of Washington to be painted by Thomas Sully.

He created a neoclassical building in the style of the United States Capitol, combining Palladian and Greek Revival architectures.

Colonel William Polk, an officer in the American Revolutionary War, addressed the audience in the dedication speech, as reported in The Raleigh Register on December 28, starting:[11]Fellow Citizens:– An enlightened Legislature, faithful to the emotions of a grateful people, has procured the Statue of our beloved Washington, formed by the highest skill of an artist whom all agree in calling the Michael Angelo [sic] of the Age.

It is our painful and melancholy duty again to announce to the public another appalling instance of loss by fire, which will be deeply felt and lamented by every individual in our State.

The State Library is also entirely consumed, and the Statue of Washington, that proud monument of national gratitude, which was our pride and glory, is so mutilated and defaced that none can behold it but with mournful feelings, and the conviction involuntarily forces itself upon their minds, that the loss is one which can not be repaired.

The most active exertions were made to rescue this chef d'ouvre of Canova from the ravishes of the devouring elements, nor were they desisted from until the danger became imminent.As the blaze burned from the roof towards the bottom of the building, North Carolina Secretary of State William Hill had time to save a significant amount of state documents, carrying them out of his office to the adjacent Union Square.