Columbus, Ohio – The Capital Building and Topiary Garden

Today we drove to Columbus, OH to see the State Capital. Being Sunday parking was ample on the streets and the parking meters do not have to be fed. The Capital is really two buildings; the older one being neo-classical and the newer one was French Renaissance. Both buildings are connected by a covered breezeway, affectionately called Pigeon Alley. The dome does not have a cupola, because the building would have been taller than the capital in Washington, DC, a no-no at that time. Abraham Lincoln was giving a speech to the General Assembly, when news came that he had won the 1860 election. One other interesting aspect of the State Capital is that there are no metal detectors in sight. The reason given is that nothing of national importance happens there.

From the Capital we went four blocks to the Topiary Garden on the grounds of the School of the Deaf. What makes this place so special is that it is a 3-D version of George Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” What other adaptation of that painting has been made? The topiary began in 1989 and is still a work in progress. Some of the metal forms are still visible for the taller figures and the boats are being added on a pond.

Our final stop for the say was “The Horseshoe”, Ohio Stadium at Ohio State University. The streets were pretty crowded with a great police presence. The reason was that it was “Move In” day, the day more than 5,000 freshmen move their possessions into the dorms. The stadium is very impressive, but Big Blue at Ann Arbor, MI still is the best.

The answer to the above question is the musical by Stephen Sondheim, “Sunday in the Park with George”.