Constitution Hall - Exhibits
Built in 1856, Constitution Hall is the oldest wood frame building in Kansas still standing in its original location. Its native cottonwood floor planks and black walnut lap siding boards were installed at the time of construction. The building witnessed the early history of Kansas Territory, and visitors can stand where that history happened. The first land office in Kansas Territory was located here, and the Kansas Supreme Court met on the second floor. The territorial legislature also met upstairs, and proslavery delegates wrote the Lecompton Constitution with the intent of bringing Kansas into the Union as a slave state.
Like the building itself, several items in Constitution Hall witnessed history. Visitors can see:
- Land office desk, originally owned by Albert G. Boone, Daniel Boone’s grandson
- Bound volume of 1855 Statutes of Kansas Territory, written by proslavery legislators and called the “Bogus Laws” by antislavery men
- Candle box in which John Calhoun buried fake ballots that were cast in a vote for the Lecompton Constitution
- Office safe owned by Charles Robinson, first Kansas governor