Pennsylvania’s State Capitol sits high above Harrisburg, like a Beaux-Arts palais. The work of local artisans adorns its vast rotunda, from earthy Moravian tiles underfoot, depicting textile mills and snapping turtles in the region’s German-folk style, to the dome above, modelled on that of St Peter’s Basilica. At its centre, a staircase ascends to the senate chamber, designed in a French Renaissance style and finished in phthalo green and rare Irish jade, or Connemara marble.