NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Major renovations at the Tennessee State Capitol and Legislative Plaza are entering their final stages, with state officials expressing confidence that work will be completed before lawmakers return to Nashville in January and before Tennessee inaugurates a new governor.
Officials provided updates on the projects during a recent meeting of the State Capitol Commission.
Watch the fill report below:
Work on the state capitol building
The historic Capitol building, which opened in 1859, has undergone extensive restoration work in recent months. Crews have been replacing windows, doors and portions of the building's copper roof.
"The reason that we're having to replace the 70-year-old copper roof is not that the copper's gone bad, it's because the gutter has gone bad," said David Plummer of Centric Architecture, one of the firms involved in the project.
A new statue
In addition to restoration work on the capitol itself, the state is preparing to install a new bronze statue of famed Tennessee frontiersman David Crockett and his two hunting dogs on the Capitol grounds.
"I learned more about hunting dogs than I ever realized existed," Plummer told commissioners.
The statue's design has been finalized and is now awaiting casting and installation.
A new welcome center
The largest transformation, however, is taking place at Legislative Plaza.
The facility, which for decades housed lawmakers' offices, has been completely reimagined as a visitor center serving the Capitol complex.
"The intent for the visitors area is this is truly the gateway to the Capitol," said John Hull, deputy commissioner of the Tennessee Real Estate Asset Management Division.
The renovated building will include visitor amenities, a museum dedicated to the capitol's history and a new home for the Tennessee State Museum's military history exhibits.
Hull said the new location will provide a much more prominent space for those exhibits.
The clock is ticking
The timeline is particularly important because Legislative Plaza has traditionally served as the site of gubernatorial inaugurations. The plaza also frequently hosts demonstrations and public gatherings during the legislative session.
Project leaders told commissioners they expect construction to be finished by the end of 2026, allowing the area to reopen ahead of the inauguration and the start of the 2027 legislative session.
One remaining challenge involves coordinating installation of the Crockett statue with another annual capitol tradition: the Capitol Christmas Tree.
"I'm worried about the crane for the statue and the crane for the Christmas tree and timing those two things, but we're working on those details," Plummer said.
Replacing the Carmack Statue
The Crockett statue will replace the Edward Carmack statue that stood on the Capitol grounds for decades.
The Carmack statue was toppled during protests in 2020. Even before that incident, state leaders had debated removing the monument because of Carmack's controversial legacy.
Carmack was a newspaper editor in Nashville and Memphis in the late 1800s.
Longtime historian Jim Hoobler told NewsChannel 5 in 2020 that Carmack wrote a scathing editorial endorsing some lynchings of Black men trying to establish a grocery store in a Memphis neighborhood.
"A mob formed, hauled them out and lynched them. Carmack endorses that. Ida B. Wells decried that, they were friends of hers," he said.
Carmack then turned his pen against Ida B. Wells, an early figure in the civil rights movement, for writing editorials in her own paper about the lynchings. "He incited a mob to 'get the Black winch.' She was out of town on a speaking tour and they burned the newspaper she worked in. She never came back to Memphis," Hoobler said.
Later, Carmack became a politician. "Carmack was an avid Prohibitionist," Hoobler explained.
He was shot and killed by the son of one of his political rivals. Two decades later, he was honored with a statue.
What's next for renovations?
While officials remain optimistic about meeting their deadlines, they acknowledged there are still several months of work remaining before the renovated Capitol complex is fully ready to welcome lawmakers, visitors and Tennessee's next governor.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at Chris.Davis@NewsChannel5.com.
Dolly Parton's fingerprints are all over Tennessee. And how cool it is to see and hear how MTSU is working to preserve her legacy in music and beyond. Aaron Cantrell brings us a snapshot of the university's expansive Dolly collection, including her first ever recorded interview. Check it out for yourself!
- Carrie Sharp
