Commonwealth

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States

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Public art

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

This Big Thing is recorded as still being here.

Commonwealth is a gilded bronze statue by Roland Hinton Perry atop the dome of the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, installed on 25 May 1905. The Capitol Preservation Committee gives the figure as 14 feet 6 inches tall and three tons.

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Commonwealth

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Site-level location · 40.2644° N, 76.8837° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

High above Harrisburg, a gilded bronze figure crowns the dome of the Pennsylvania State Capitol. She is often called "Ms. Penn", a name the Capitol Preservation Committee says is incorrect: her title is Commonwealth.

Architect Joseph Huston sketched the allegorical figure, and sculptor Roland Hinton Perry was commissioned in 1904 to execute it. According to the committee, a series of steam hoists lifted the bronze to the top of the dome, where it was installed on 25 May 1905. Huston described her as "the symbolic embodiment of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."

The committee gives the figure alone as 14 feet 6 inches tall and the statue as three tons; with the large gilded ball at its base, the sculpture stands over 18 feet. Visit Hershey & Harrisburg gives 17 feet. The committee measures the building from bottom to the top of the statue at 272 feet, with the top of the dome's lantern at 254 feet. It records that the statue was restored in 1998.

Perry studied at the Art Students' League in New York and then in Paris, and is credited with more than thirty major works, including two monuments at Gettysburg National Military Park: General George Greene on Culp's Hill and General James Wadsworth on McPherson's Ridge.

The committee calls Commonwealth the most visible piece of Capitol artwork, visible from miles around Harrisburg. The Capitol's own site offers a free guided tour and welcomes visitors on regular weekdays if you want to see the building beneath her.

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PRACTICAL

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WHAT TO EXPECT

View the statue from the ground, outside the Capitol and around Harrisburg. The Capitol is a working seat of government that offers a free guided tour of about 30 to 45 minutes; the official site recommends booking ahead, so check it for holiday closures.

ACCESS

Atop the dome of the Pennsylvania State Capitol, Harrisburg; visitors enter by the East Wing entrance on Commonwealth Avenue or the Main Rotunda entrance at Third and State Streets. The statue is viewed from outside.

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Pennsylvania's Lady Liberty (Harrisburg)

Dauphin, Pennsylvania

A 25-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty stands on an old railroad-bridge piling in the Susquehanna River at the Dauphin Narrows, north of Harrisburg. A first version went up secretly in 1986; the present statue was airlifted into place in 1997.

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11 km away

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