The small rotunda in the old Senate wing of the Capitol was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe as an ornamental air shaft. It was constructed after the fire of 1814 as a means of lighting the corridors and circulating air into rooms that open onto the space. In the pre-fire period this elliptical space housed the wing’s main staircase. Latrobe remarked to Thomas Jefferson that “it was one of the most remarkable parts of the Capitol.” In rebuilding the wing’s interior after the fire, Latrobe moved the staircase to the east and in its place erected a circular arcade holding 16 columns, which, in turn, support a dome. Desiring columns that were more slender than the Ionic order but not so elaborate as the Corinthian, Latrobe designed a capital with the leaves and flowers of the native American tobacco plant; they were modeled by Francisco Iardella in 1816. Coffers with rosettes decorate the dome and a glass skylight covers the oculus. Crowning the space is a lantern, a small circular turret ringed with windows that originally admitted natural light and air to the corridors below.

This space was heavily damaged in November of 1898 when a gas explosion blew up the Seneca stone floor and the supporting arches and blew out the glass and sashes in the lantern. Repair work was quickly accomplished before Congress returned. In a 1901 effort to make the building fireproof, Architect of the Capitol Elliott Woods rebuilt the roof, replacing the wooden structure with steel. At the same time, the former attic space was reconstructed into a useable floor, thus cutting off the light and air to the small rotunda. About that time, the six torch-like sconces were mounted on the lower walls. In 1902 the current terrazzo and mosaic floor on the second floor was installed by the Vulcanite Tile and Mosaic Company; the “temporary” cement floor is still in place on the floor below. The decorative metal grille in the center of the floor was also installed at the time, replacing an earlier grille damaged by the explosion.

In a 1907 effort to restore the historic appearance of the corridors, crypt, and small rotunda, Elliott Woods removed the plaster and paint from the brick walls and installed imitation sandstone in their place. The current paint scheme in the small Senate rotunda dates from 1971. The two matching three-armed sconces mounted on the east wall were purchased from Gonzalez Antiques and installed in 1963.

The chandelier hanging in this rotunda has attracted attention ever since it was installed in 1965. It was purchased for $1,500 from the ABC Wrecking Co., which had removed it from the Capitol Hill United Methodist Church on Seward Square in southeast Washington, D.C., before razing that building. Although its manufacturer is not known, the chandelier was imported from Europe in 1903 for the grand Maryland Theater in Baltimore. Over the years this theater was the scene of vaudeville, film, and live dramatic presentations; among the featured performers were Buster Keaton, Al Jolson, Sophie Tucker, and a company including Henry Fonda and Margaret Sullivan. In 1949 it became one of the first theaters to desegregate, after a group of actors protested the separate seating of blacks and whites.

When the theater was being razed in 1951, a parishioner purchased the chandelier for the Trinity Methodist Church (later renamed the Capitol Hill United Methodist Church). The chandelier was smaller then: it consisted of the six-foot bronze ring, which was ornamented in relief and coarse filigree; a smaller ring that formed the main basket; and a large crystal ball attached to the basket, which terminated the chandelier. The pastor added eight glass arms, hurricane lamps, a brass crown, and Czechoslovakian crystal chains leading to the crown, thus making the fixture eight feet wide and eleven feet high (excluding the hanging chain). When it was acquired by the Architect of the Capitol the chandelier was rewired and lamp sockets were replaced. The eight fragile glass arms on the main ring were replaced with 16 short bronze arms. Each arm terminates in a glass bobeche with a circle of pendent crystal prisms. The chandelier reputedly has 14,500 crystals and weighs nearly 2,000 pounds. It is suspended from an electrically driven winch on a steel cable, which allows it to be lowered for cleaning.