This is the North Hearing Room. It is located on the second floor in the north wing of the Capitol. This room is used by the legislature for public committee hearings.
The design of this room is very different from the State Capitol's Senate Chamber, Assembly Chamber, and Supreme Court. It is carried out in a brilliant color scheme, with walls of yellow Verona marble and symmetrical Monte Rente Sienna panels between the pilasters. The wall base and floor border is of Porte d'Or Italian marble, which is black and gold. The room features a coved ceiling, and in the coves are painted murals by Charles Yardley Turner of New York, 1914-1915.
The murals in the North Hearing Room represent the four methods of transportation in Wisconsin from the earliest colonial times to the present day. Originally, the Railroad Commission used the Hearing Room, which is why the murals depict transportation history. One mural depicts Native Americans on horseback; another shows a French trading post with a canoe as the method of transportation. The third painting depicts the colonial period, with stagecoach transportation. The last mural depicts modern transportation: the steamboat, railroad, automobile, and airplane.