A virtual visit (in pictures) to the State Capitals

Here you'll find Pictures along with a growing Fun Fast Fact List about some the United States Capitals! Enjoy!

LIST of State Capitals that we've been to:
Alaska - Juneau
Arizona - Phoenix
California - Sacramento
Colorado - Denver
Connecticut - Hartford
Deleware - Dover
Georgia - Atlanta
Hawaii - Honolulu
Idaho - Boise
Kansas - Topeka
Massachusetts - Boston
Nevada - Carson City
New Jersey - Trenton
New Mexico - Santa Fe
New York - Albany
Ohio - Columbus
Pennsylvania - Harrisburg
Rhode Island - Providence
Tennessee - Nashville
Texas - Austin
Utah - Salt Lake City
Virginia - Richmond
Wyoming - Cheyenne

*While we have visited several state capitals through the years, I am embarrassed to say that we do not have pictures to go along with them - guess we'll have to go back!

Idaho - Boise

FACTS ABOUT THE IDAHO CAPITAL:

• In 1905, the Idaho legislature passed the bill authorizing construction of the Capitol Building.
• The architects of the Capitol Building were J.E. Tourtellotte and Charles Hummel.
• The dome and central parts of the Capitol were built first—from 1905-1912.
• Convicts from the old Idaho Penitentiary were responsible for transporting the 10-ton sandstone blocks from the quarry.
• From the first floor to the eagle atop the dome, the Idaho Capitol Building rises 208 feet. 
• The original cost to construct the Capitol was $2.1 million.
• Replacement costs today would be over $100 million with many materials considered irreplaceable.
• Idaho's Capitol Building is the only one in the United States heated by geothermal water. The hot water is tapped and pumped from a source 3,000 feet underground.

New Mexico - Santa Fe

FACTS ABOUT THE NEW MEXICO CAPITAL:

• Santa Fe tops the other 50 state capitals in height, sitting 7,000 feet above sea level.
• Built in 1610, The Palace of the Governors is America's oldest continuously occupied public building, making it one of the nation's oldest landmarks.
• Santa Fe's full name is "La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis"” which translates to "The Royal City of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi." Don Pedro de Prealta bestowed this name upon it. The phrase Santa Fe translates to "holy city".
• Founded in 1608, Santa Fe is America's oldest state capitol and was made the capital of the entire territory in 1610. *Only two older surviving cities, both in Florida, exist: Pensacola, which was founded in 1559, and Saint Augustine, founded in 1565.
• The Capital Building, built in 1966, it's designed in the shape of a Zia Pueblo emblem (or sun sign, which is also the state symbol). It symbolizes the Circle of Life: four winds, four seasons, four directions, and four sacred obligations.

New York - Albany

FACTS ABOUT THE NEW YORK CAPITAL:

• Spanning four decades, the finished Capitol took 32 years to build, from 1867 to 1899. The final cost was a staggering $25 million dollars. Today, that same structure would cost a half billion dollars to build.
• Four hundred feet long and three hundred feet wide, the Capitol has five stories with a full basement and attic. It is constructed principally of gray granite and has walls over sixteen feet thick at the foundation.

• It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, then included as a contributing property when the Lafayette Park Historic District was listed in 1978. The following year it was declared a National Historic Landmark.

New Hampshire - Concord

FACTS ABOUT NEW HAMPSHIRE CAPITAL:

• Completed in 1819, with additions in 1866 and 1910.
• It is the oldest statehouse in which the legislature still sits in its original chambers.

• The building itself, built for an approximate cost of $82,000, is made primarily of granite quarried from what is known today as the Swenson quarries located at the north end of the town. Much of the cutting, shaping and facing of the  stones was performed by inmates of the New Hampshire State Prison for Men.

Oregon - Salem

FACTS ABOUT THE OREGON CAPITAL:

• The location of the Oregon capital caused a spirited contest that lasted nearly 15 years. By a legislative act in 1851, the territorial government moved the capital to Salem from Oregon City. In 1855, it was moved to Corvallis, only to move back to Salem the same year. Destruction of the Capitol Building at Salem on December 31, 1855, was considered an incendiary part of this controversy.
• The current building, constructed from 1936 to 1938, and expanded in 1977, is the third to house the Oregon state government in Salem. Two former capitol buildings were destroyed by fire, one in 1855 and the other in 1935.

• The building was erected at a cost of $2.5 million for the central portion of the building, which includes a dome of 166 feet. The wings, which doubled the floor space of the building to about 233,750 square feet, were added later for $12.5 million. 
  

Utah - Salt Lake City

FACTS ABOUT THE UTAH CAPITAL:

• Today's Capitol is actually Utah's second. The first Capitol Building was in a small town called Fillmore, built there by federal decree, but only one wing of that building was finished before Salt Lake City was made the territorial capitol in 1855.

• Seed money for the construction of the Capitol came in 1911 when the state collected almost $800,000 in inheritance tax from the estate of railroad magnate E.H. Harriman. The state bonded for another $2 million and legislators chose Richard Kletting's Renaissance Revival plan for a 404-foot long, 240-foot wide and 286-foot tall statehouse.

• The entire structure is held up by four piers, each supporting 10 million pounds.
  

• There are 14 lion’s heads and 10 beehives inside the House Chamber.
  

USA - Washington DC

FACTS ABOUT THE UNITED STATES CAPITAL:

• George Washington himself laid the cornerstone for the capitol September 18, 1793.

• Construction of the U.S. Capitol began in 1793 and has been "completed" several times. The original building was finished in 1826.
  

• The famous dome we know today wasn't added to the building until the 1850s.

• The U.S. Capitol’s length, from north to south, is 751 feet 4 inches; its greatest width is 350 feet. Its height above the base line on the east front to the top of the Statue of Freedom is 288 feet.