MYSTERY PHOTO: Two domes

We go from last week’s mystery of one gold dome to this week’s photo of two brick-colored domes.  Where is this building and what is it?  Send your guess to editor@charlestoncurrents.com with “Mystery Photo” in the subject line.   Please make sure to include your name and contact information.

Last issue’s mystery

The April 9 Mystery Photo showed the gold top of the Georgia state capitol in Atlanta.  While we got some guesses of buildings in West Virginia and Savannah, hats off to those who correctly identified the dome:  Bud Ferillo of Columbia; Chris Brooks of Mount Pleasant; David Brown of Daniel Island; Cheryl Smithem of Summerville; Montez Martin of Charleston; Chuck Boyd of Hanahan; George Graf of Palmyra, Va.; and Tom Tindall of Edisto Island.

Tindall, using Wikipedia and Georgia.gov as sources, noted, “The gold dome in itself is quite impressive. However, sitting on top of the Capitol is a white-stoned statue of a woman raising a torch to the sky and pointing a sword to the ground.  Known as Miss Freedom, originally christened as Goddess of Liberty, the statue has adorned the dome of the Georgia State Capitol since 1889. Commissioned in 1888, the hollow copper statue is painted white, is 22 feet tall from head to foot, with the total height from her torch to her feet being just over 26 feet and weighs over 1,600 pounds.”

Graf provided more detail: “According to a great story by Allison Hutton at saportareport.com the need for gold for the capitol dome was answered by the Dahlonega Jaycees in 1957. … The Dahlonega Jaycees took charge. They organized a day for Dahlonegans and others from Lumpkin County to return to their roots and pan for the gold themselves in local streams; they also sought donations from those who still had pieces from decades earlier.

“The pioneering spirit was at work, too, when it came time to deliver the 43 ounces of gold the Jaycees had collected to Atlanta. The gold would make the trip via wagon train, just as the Georgia treasury had in 1807 when the capital moved from Louisville to Milledgeville. On August 4, 1958, seven covered wagons accompanied by ‘33 adults, 18 children, 15 mules, six horses, one dog, and two State Patrol cars’ began the three-day journey from Dahlonega to Atlanta. The gold was proudly conveyed in a chest said to have belonged to William Few, one of the two Georgians (the other was Abraham Baldwin) who had signed the U.S. Constitution. The wagon train traveled just three miles per hour.”

• Send us a mystery:  If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!)   Send it along to  editor@charlestoncurrents.com.