Bundles of black wire trailed movie cameras and snaked around the bases of white Georgian marble columns in the Senate chamber of the Rhode Island State House Wednesday afternoon, as the sound of actors practicing monologues from the TV drama "Brotherhood" echoed off the vaulted ceilings. Outside, another group of actors gesticulated wildly under the fall sun, practicing lines for the show in front of the building's recognizable dome.
The State House has hosted film crews for the third season of the series - which revolves around the lives of two brothers, one a local politician and the other a criminal involved with New England's Irish mob - since April.
Just a 15-minute walk from the University's main campus, the State House has attracted politicians, history buffs, students and the media for years. Other times the seats of its House and Senate chambers are filled with representatives, sometimes with actors: The building served as a backdrop in the 1997 Steven Spielberg film "Amistad."
But the neoclassical artifice that houses the General Assembly and the offices of the Ocean State's top public servants is also defining itself as an important tourist locale, offering hour-long tours daily to educate visitors about its rich architectural and historical significance.
The tour guide last Wednesday, Sarah Draginice, walked this Herald reporter and a group of 15 tourists around the building, which was constructed in 1904.
It is on the tour that visitors learn, for example, that the dome of the State House is the fourth-largest self-supporting marble dome in the world, after St. Peter's Basilica, the Minnesota State Capitol and the Taj Mahal.
During the walk through the building, Draginice pointed out hints of history - the wear on the mural-adorned ceilings, on the marble stairs from more than a century of comings and goings. She highlighted the presence of the Royal Charter of Rhode Island, a document penned in 1663 to give Rhode Island citizens the freedoms of religious worship and self-governance, which is now housed in a fireproof and temperature-regulated steel vault.
In addition to its grandeur and history, the State House is, of course, the site of the day-to-day business of the Ocean State's government. The R.I. House currently has 75 representatives - 60 Democrats, 13 Republicans, 1 Independent and 1 vacancy. The Senate has a smaller chamber for its 38 representatives - 33 Democrats and 5 Republicans.
"Because of the election, it's particularly important to come see the State House," said Andrew Stitt, a 21-year-old Providence resident who interned at the State House library and has visited the building repeatedly since he first toured it on an elementary school field trip. "Politics and government buildings go hand in hand."
The wooden desks legislators occupy illustrate both the antiquity and modernity of the building. The tops of the desks are equipped with buttons that allow representatives to vote, call for a page or call to be recognized. The desks are also wired for Internet access - though strictly for government business use.
Nadia Benavidez, a junior at Johnson and Wales University who is also an intern at the building said she, too, will soon be giving tours of the State House. Benavidez, who is studying travel and tourism, pointed to the artistry of the building's gilded ceilings, tapestries stitched into the walls and art hanging in the interior.
"Before, I did not think Rhode Island had such a rich history. Literally and metaphorically, this building shows otherwise," Benavidez said.
