STATEHOUSE NEWS

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Happy birthday, Ohio! Join your friends at the Ohio Statehouse’s family-friendly celebration of Ohio’s 213^th birthday Sunday, February 28 from noon to 3 p.m. Attendees will participate in creative art projects, go on a special Ohio Statehouse tour featuring Ohio’s symbols, engage in a scavenger hunt and explore the Ohio Statehouse Museum. At 2 p.m. be sure to join the party in the Rotunda for a birthday surprise! This event is free and open to the public! Affordable on-site parking is available in the Ohio Statehouse parking garage.

Ohio's first constitution was approved by Congress and signed by President Thomas Jefferson Feb. 19, 1803. In the January election of 1803, the mild-mannered doctor and legislator Edward Tiffin—Thomas Worthington’s (sixth Governor of Ohio) brother-in-law—was elected as Ohio’s first governor. Official "state" business was conducted for the first time March 1, 1803, when Tiffin and members of the first Ohio General Assembly convened in Chillicothe.

From Chillicothe the state capital moved to Zanesville from 1810 to 1812, and upon the founding of Columbus as the “new capital city’ the functioning seat of government was, again, placed in Chillicothe from 1812 to 1816 when the Ohio Capitol in Columbus was completed and state government moved, permanently, to central Ohio. Columbus was designed specifically to hold the seat of government and without the old Ohio Capitol and the “new” Ohio Statehouse, that has housed state government since 1857, the city of Columbus would not be here today. For the past 159 years this magnificent Greek Revival building has been beloved by all Ohioans. Come in from the cold and celebrate the great State of Ohio on her 213^th birthday at the Ohio Statehouse.

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