The Tuesday morning reopening of the State House after nearly two years of being closed to the public was a muted affair with mostly building regulars flocking back to be beneath the golden dome.
“I do lobbying work for the Disabled American Veterans Massachusetts and I want to pop up to the office and say hello to the staff. We got extra funding in this year’s budget, so I just want to thank them for the work they did,” Rick Branca, a lobbyist for The Malloy Group who was the first person to enter the State House at 9 a.m. Tuesday, told reporters.
Tuesday was the first time since the emerging coronavirus ground life to a halt in mid-March 2020 that visitors were allowed in the historic Bullfinch-designed state capitol and it was also the first time people have been welcomed into the building since the Jan. 6, 2021 violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Building.
Only the Ashburton Park entrance is open to the public and a small white tent has been erected outside the building for one House court officer and one Senate court officer to check vaccination status or test results for visitors. Building security is about the same as it was two years ago, with Department of Conservation and Recreation rangers manning the usual metal detector and X-ray machine inside the building lobby.
The State House reopened with a requirement that every visitor show either proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or a negative test result from the last 24 hours. Despite the city of Boston dropping similar requirements for restaurants, arenas and other venues late last week, Spilka and Mariano decided to keep the requirements in place for the State House.
“With public health data constantly evolving, we will review these requirements on a weekly basis,” Mariano and Spilka said Feb. 14 when first announcing the reopening.
Visitors to the State House must also wear a mask covering their nose and mouth in the building as do people who work in the State House except when they are at their workspace.
(Copyright (c) 2026 State House News Service.