18.    Central Hallway

Apart from the Old State House's facade -- with its pediment, colonnade, and portico -- the view down its long Central Corridor is perhaps its most impressive architectural statement.
The North Breezeway, the T-shaped space at the rear of the building, lies between the three rooms added to the building’s north end first floor in 1885. These three rooms -- the present-day restrooms and the Riverfront Room -- served as the foundation of the immense expansion of the legislative chamber above. Until it was enclosed in the mid-1980s, the North Breezeway was a true breezeway, open to the elements on its eastern and western ends. The base of this T-shaped hallway connects to the Main Building's Central Corridor through the original 1836 northern exterior doorway.

The 1885 renovators saw themselves as modernizing the structure along Victorian lines, so they felt no obligation to preserve the State House's Greek Revival characteristics. The exposed brickwork in the breezeway is one example of elements of the Victorian architectural style found in various parts of the building.