Texas State Capitol
Texas State Capitol | |
Texas State Antiquities Landmark | |
The Seventh Largest Building in the World". | |
Location | Congress and 11th Sts Austin, Texas, U.S. |
---|---|
Coordinates | 30°16′29″N 97°44′26″W / 30.27472°N 97.74056°W |
Area | 51.4 acres (20.8 ha) |
Built | 1885 |
Architect | Elijah E. Myers |
Architectural style | Italian Renaissance Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 70000770 |
RTHL No. | 14150 |
TSAL No. | 641 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | June 22, 1970[2] |
Designated NHL | June 23, 1986[1] |
Designated RTHL | 1964 |
Designated TSAL | May 28, 1981 |
The Texas State Capitol is the capitol and seat of government of the American state of Texas. Located in downtown Austin, Texas, the structure houses the offices and chambers of the Texas Legislature and of the Governor of Texas. Designed in 1881 by architect Elijah E. Myers, it was constructed from 1882 to 1888 under the direction of civil engineer Reuben Lindsay Walker. A $75 million underground extension was completed in 1993. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.[1][3]
The Texas State Capitol is 302.64 feet (92.24 m) tall, making it the sixth-tallest state capitol and one of several taller than the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.[4] The capitol was ranked 92nd in the 2007 "America's Favorite Architecture" poll commissioned by the American Institute of Architects.[5]
History
The current Texas State Capitol is the third building to serve that purpose. The first was a wooden structure that had served as the national capitol of the Texas Republic and continued as the seat of government upon Texas' admission to the Union. The second Texas capitol was built in 1853, on the same site as the present capitol in Austin; it was destroyed by fire in 1881, but plans had already been made to replace it with a new, much larger structure.[6]
Construction
Construction of the
The designers originally planned for the building to be
The cornerstone for the building was laid on March 2, 1885,
Capitol View Corridors
In 1931, the City of Austin enacted a
The Westgate was followed by even taller structures: first the 307-foot (94 m) Dobie Center (designed in 1968), and then a series of ever larger downtown bank towers, culminating in the 395-foot (120 m) One American Center (designed in 1982).[16] In early 1983, inspired by the Westgate and these other structures, State Senator Lloyd Doggett and State Representative Gerald Hill advanced a bill proposing a list of protected "Capitol View Corridors" along which construction would not be permitted, so as to protect the capitol's visibility from a series of points around Austin.[17] The bill was signed into law on May 3, 1983,[18] defining 30 state-protected viewing corridors and prohibiting any construction that would intersect one of them.[19] The City of Austin has adopted similar rules, so that the majority of the corridors are also protected under municipal zoning code, as well as under state law.[20]
Capitol extension and restorations
On February 6, 1983, a fire began in the apartment of William P. Hobby Jr., then the state lieutenant governor. A guest of Hobby's was killed, and four firemen and a policeman were injured by the subsequent blaze. The capitol was crowded with accumulated archives, and the fire was intense and came dangerously close to destroying the structure. It caused severe damage to the east wing and compromised much of the framing, which was largely composed of exposed cast iron posts and beams.
Following the fire, the state took advantage of the extensive rebuilding to update the mechanical and structural systems to modern standards. In November 1985, the original Goddess of Liberty statue on top of the dome was removed by helicopter. A new statue, cast of aluminum in molds made from the original zinc statue, was placed on the dome in June 1986 by the Mississippi National Guard, since Texas lacked the capacity to lift the approx. 3,000-pound statue.[21] The original statue was restored and displayed on the Capitol grounds in a special structure built for it in 1995; it was later moved to the Bullock Texas State History Museum in 2001.[22]
The Old Texas Land Office, on the Capitol grounds, was rebuilt and updated between 1988 and 1990, after which the Capitol Visitors Center was moved there, freeing space in the Capitol. Previously, the building had housed the Texas Confederate Museum, which began in a ground floor room of the Capitol (1903–1920), before moving to the Land Office building.
Additionally, the state sought to address the intensifying shortage of space in the old building, deciding that a new office wing should be added. The logical place for an addition was the plaza immediately to the north; however, a large building there would have eliminated the historic north façade and covered what had traditionally been seen as an important public space. Instead, an expansion to the capitol was built beneath the north plaza, connecting to the existing capitol underground.
In 1993, the $75 million, four-story, underground capitol extension was completed to the north, doubling the square footage available to capitol occupants and providing much-improved functionality. Though the extension encompasses 667,000 square feet (62,000 m2) (nearly twice the floor space of the original building), little evidence exists of such a large structure at ground level, except for extensive skylights camouflaged as planter rows, and the four-story, open-air, inverted rotunda.[23] In 1995, a comprehensive interior and exterior restoration of the original building was completed at a cost of about $98 million. In 1997, the park-like grounds surrounding the capitol received an $8 million renovation and restoration.
In 2016 the Texas Capitol Complex began a master renovation project.[24] Involving the participation and collaboration of The Texas Facilities Commission, the Partnership Advisory Commission, Texas General Land Office, Texas State Preservation Board, Texas Historical Commission, the project sought to create the Texas Mall—an expansion of the Capitol Extension open space. Another goal was to address the rising cost of leased office space for state agencies which were then dispersed around the city by concentrating them in State-owned facilities. After the project completion, Congress Avenue became a pedestrian-only tree-lined mall with lawn panels extending north of 15th Street to 18th Street. Vehicular access for these blocks is now limited to emergency and service vehicles. The lawn panels continue from 18th Street to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard with travel lanes for vehicular drop off.[24]
Design and features
The Texas State Capitol and grounds are located on a hilltop overlooking downtown Austin, with the main entrance facing onto the Congress Avenue Historic District to the south, for which it forms a terminating vista. The northern edge of the capitol grounds lies four blocks south of the University of Texas at Austin.
Building
The capitol is a roughly rectangular building with a four-story central block, symmetrical three-story wings extending to the east and west, and a
It contains 360,000 square feet (33,000 m2) of floor space (not including the Capitol Extension), more than any other state capitol building, and rests on a 2.25-acre (0.91 ha) footprint. The building has nearly 400 rooms and more than 900 windows.The interior of the central portion forms an open rotunda beneath the dome. Massive cast-iron staircases flanking the rotunda connect the various levels of the building. The two chambers of the Texas Legislature (the Texas Senate and Texas House of Representatives) meet in large, double-height spaces in the centers of the two wings on the second floor, overlooked by public galleries on the third floor. The remainder of the building is filled with office space, courts, and archives; additional offices fill the underground extension.[3]
Public art and museums
The central rotunda is hung with portraits of all the past presidents of the
Grounds
The Capitol building is surrounded by 22 acres (8.9 ha) of grounds scattered with statues and monuments. William Munro Johnson, civil engineer, was hired in 1888 to improve the appearance of the grounds. By the time the first monument, commemorating the Heroes of the Alamo, was installed in 1891, the major components of Johnson's plan were in place. These included a "Great Walk" of black and white diamond-patterned pavement shaded by trees. The four oldest monuments are the Heroes of the Alamo Monument (1891), Volunteer Firemen Monument (1896), Confederate Soldiers Monument (1903) and Terry's Texas Rangers Monument (1907), and these flank the tree-lined Great Walk.[25] In the spring of 2013, ground was broken for the Texas Capitol Vietnam Veterans Monument; dedication took place on March 29, 2014.
A granite monument of the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol was the topic of a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case, Van Orden v. Perry, in which the display was challenged as unconstitutional.[26] In late June 2005, the Court in a 5–4 ruling declared that the display was not unconstitutional.
Gallery
Exterior
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Capitol Building from the south
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Capitol Building from the north
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Goddess of Liberty statue atop the building
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Cornerstone of Texas State Capitol building
Interior
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The Capitol dome's interior
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Terrazzo mosaic depicting the seals of the six nations that have governed Texas
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Portraits lining the rotunda
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Texas Senate Chamber
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The Texas House of Representatives Chamber
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Terrazzo mosaic of reverse seal of Texas in the capitol extension, showing the six flags of Texas
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Voting button panel in the Texas House of Representatives
Grounds
See also
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Texas
- List of Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks (Sabine-Travis)
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Travis County, Texas
- List of tallest domes
References
- ^ a b "Texas State Capitol". National Park Service. Archived from the original on November 13, 2009. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ a b c John C. Ferguson (December 1985). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Texas State Capitol" (pdf). National Park Service. and Accompanying 11 photos, exterior and interior, from 1980 and 1985 (32 KB)
- ^ "It's True: Texas Capitol Stands Taller Than Nation's". Orlando Sentinel. January 14, 1999. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
- ^ Frangos, Alex (February 7, 2007). "Americans' Favorite Buildings". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
- ^ "The Evolution of a Great State's Capitol". The Illustrated American. 21 (362). New York City: 108–9. January 16, 1897. Retrieved February 12, 2024.
- ISBN 0-292-73703-3.
- ^ a b Texas State Historical Society, Handbook of Texas.Texas State Historical Society. "Capitol". Retrieved February 2, 2022.
- ^ "N. L. Norton, W. H. Westfall, and G. W. Lacy". Waymarking.com. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
- ^ "Austin and Northwestern Railroad". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
- ^ Clark, John. "Waters Park, TX". Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
- ^ Butler, Wayne. "Milwood History". Milwood Neighborhood Association. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
- ^ Green, Walter Elton. "Capitol". Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved November 21, 2011.
- ^ a b "Texas State Capitol Building - Historical Marker Text". Texas Escapes. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
- ^ Barnes, Michael (May 4, 2013). "State Capitol dedication the party of a lifetime". Austin American-Statesman. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
- ^ a b "Zoning Change Review Sheet". City of Austin. Retrieved October 31, 2017.
- ^ "Background on the Capitol View Corridors Issue" (PDF). Preservation Austin. Retrieved November 8, 2017.
- ^ "SB 176, 68th Regular Session". Legislative Reference Library. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
- ^ "Government Code Chapter 3151. Preservation of View of State Capitol". Texas Constitution and Statutes. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
- ^ "APPENDIX A. - BOUNDARIES OF THE CAPITOL VIEW CORRIDORS". Municode Library. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 5, 2022.
- ^ Green, William Elton (June 12, 2010). "Handbook of Texas". Retrieved January 1, 2018.
- ^ "SPB - Capitol Restoration and Expansion". tspb.texas.gov. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
- ^ a b "2016 Texas Capitol Complex Master Plan" (PDF). Texas Facilities Commission.
- ^ "Grounds and Monuments". Texas State Preservation Board. Retrieved November 21, 2011.
- Washington Post. Retrieved November 21, 2011.
External links
- Texas State Preservation Board - Maintainers of the Capitol
- Capitol Grounds Monuments
- Library of Congress: architectural drawings and photographs of the Texas State capitol
- Capitol Dedication Ceremony - Excerpts from Senator Temple Houston's acceptance (of the capitol building) speech May 16, 1888 at TexasBob.com
- America's Favorite Architecture
- Capitol from the Handbook of Texas Online
- Film footage about the building's Goddess of Liberty from the local Austin TV program Progress Report Austin, 1962, Texas Archive of the Moving Image