The original 1792 Maryland State House dome retains its original paint beneath 17 later coats. What is now a demure gray and white dome was once brilliantly golden -- just as it was recorded by Charles Willson Peale when he drew the color scheme while overseeing the installation of Benjamin Franklin's first lightning rod on a public building -- an element that also remains to this day on the building where the Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War was signed with the British while Annapolis was the nation's capitol.
The Preservation Science Blog 
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