§ 'Da Capitol....

This post is the last of the photos I found on the unmarked disk. I finish the series with the Texas State Capitol building in Austin Texas. I found the whole day spent touring the capitol and its grounds filled with statues and more the most fascinating of the entire trip! And as we waited in line to enter, the one thing that caught my eye was the brass door hinges! "Texas Capitol". A photo follows below....

The Capitol's exterior walls are Texas red granite from Burnet County, while the interior and walls are Texas limestone.

The roof, encompassing 85,000 square feet, is made of copper.

the Texas Capitol covers three acres of ground with approximately 18 acres of floor space or 192,374 square feet of available office space. When completed in 1888, the building contained 392 rooms, 18 vaults, 924 windows, and 404 doors. Approximately 566 feet in length, 288 feet in width, and 302.64 feet from grade line to the top of the star on the Goddess of Liberty atop the dome

It is the largest of all domed state capitol buildings

The Capitol was officially completed on December 8, 1888, six years and ten months after construction began.

The building contractors were paid for construction with 3 MILLION acres of Texas land...it eventually became the XIT Ranch [the largest fenced in ranch in the WORLD]

Due to its location, the Rotunda is also a “whispering gallery.” Thanks to the echoes created by being underneath the dome, people in other parts of the Rotunda will be able to hear everything you say

Read more
6000 Miles of fence on the XIT Ranch




Seen above: Door hinges, the captiol dome's statue, Sam Houston, Stephen Austin, staircases intracasies, view of Austin from Texas House of Representatives.




Seen above: Texas Lone Star light fixtures, Capitol Rotunda, Texas Senate [2 photos], Texas House of Representative, and oil painting of Santa Anna and Sam Houston where Mexico Surrendered!!  [Santa Anna, standing in white britches and blue coat, Sam Houston Reclining -Texas Revolution]

§ Ho Ho Ho...

Santa at the Mall
"...it's okay little one, I'm a jolly fellow!"
connecting to: Ruby Tuesday2


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Austin Texas - Texas State Capitol Part II

"Surrender of Santa Anna"

Artist William Henry Huddle painted the scene of the morning of April 22, 1836, the day after Texas' victory over Mexico at the Battle of San Jacinto. Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna, in the uniform of a private soldier, was brought before Texas General Sam Houston as a prisoner of war. Houston, wounded in the battle, rested on a pallet under the oak tree while arranging an armistice with Santa Anna. To the right, seated on a log, was Erastus (Deaf) Smith, famous Texas scout; the captured Mexican battle flags were leaning nearby against the tree. To the left and rear of Houston was his Secretary of War, Thomas Jefferson Rusk, who was standing next to Colonel Mirabeau B. Lamar. Over thirty other historical figures were depicted in this painting. It has been on display in the first floor south wing of the Capitol since February 1891.

trivia question:

WHAT FAMOUS CIVIL WAR GENERAL SERVED AS AN OFFICER IN THREE DIFFERENT NATIONS?

...the Texas Army, the United States Army, and the Confederate States Army. He [Albert Sidney Johnston] was killed in the Civil War's Battle of Shiloh and was the highest-ranking officer, Union or Confederate, killed during the entire war. This photo of the painting is located in the Senate Chamber of the capitol.

On the second floor of the Capitol's east wing is the Senate Chamber which still looks much as it did when it was originally constructed. The 31 original walnut desks are still in use. On the right: 'The Rostrum' where the Lieutenant Governor presides.

The Chamber of the House of Representatives is the largest room in the Capitol and used today as it was originally intended in 1888. There are 150 members including the Speaker of the House who presides over the body.

These large brass chandeliers hang in the center of the Chamber[s] and were installed in 1890. The lights in the star points spell out "TEXAS". With so many people there at the time we were there and mostly roped off, it was difficult to get a really clear photo. I'll try to help out: Just above my watermark "Hootin' Anni's"...the "T"...go clockwise to "E" then, "X" then "A" then "S". [click to enlarge for a better view]

...She holds a sword in her right hand and a gilded star in her left which she holds up to the sky. The Goddess stands 15 feet, 7 1/2 inches tall which is said to make the Texas Capitol taller than the U.S. Capitol. [this statue is the 2nd...the original was restored and now displayed in the historical museum]

From the balustrade surrounding the atrium, peer down into the Legislative Reference Library, the repository for materials related to the Texas legislature. This working library, once a division of the State Library, features some unusual artifacts including the desk-like chair along the north wall. This chair was supposedly used by Santa Anna during his Texas campaigns.


View from the Chamber window looking to the city skyline...the pointed building in the background [left side of photo] is the FROST BANK Tower --3rd tallest building in Austin, Texas.

...to the capitol's monument grounds...

The park like area surrounding the capitol building consists of approximately 22 acres. Monuments are the physical and symbolic center of government for the State of Texas. These photos below are just the ones in the front area of the building...

Left to right:

Hood's Texas Brigade

Confederate Soldiers Monument

Heroes of the Alamo

This monument [rather a new addition] pays tribute to the contributions by Tejanos as permanent testimony of the Spanish-Mexican heritage that has influenced and is inherent in present-day Texas culture.

YESTERDAY, if you missed it....the capitol building PART I --- click HERE to view the dome, the rotunda, even the brass hinges that has "Texas Capitol" etched into each and every door, etc.

FURTHER READING:

Texas Trivia

WALKING TOUR -note: PDF file

Guide to Capitol

§ Austin - the Capital/Capitol Building -Part I-

poinsettia plant
connecting to: MACRO Monday


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This building, below in photos, the Texas State Capitol, is of great significance to the state!! Some historical facts are:

1. Built 1882-1888
2. Cornerstone [weight-16,000 *another site states 18,000 pounds] laid March 2, 1885 [anniversary of Texas Independence Day]
3. Cost: $3.7 MILLION!!! [1888 dollars]
4. Exterior Walls - Texas Sunset Granite [pink] hauled from Marble Falls, Texas - 4000 railroad carloads
5. 392 rooms, 924 windows, and 404 doors.
6. Over 1,000 people worked on the building's construction at a time.
7. The largest state capitol in the US in terms of square feet.
8. Taller than the US Capitol by 23 feet.
9. In 1888 - it was the 7th largest in the world & second tallest in the world.
10. "The Great Walkway" in front of the State Capitol was built in 1889 and is 25 feet wide and over 500 feet long.
11. The dome's statue....Goddess of Liberty...placed atop the capitol on Feburary 26, 1888. Not original, The Goddess of Liberty today is a replacement - placed atop by a helicopter!!
12. Goddess of Liberty Lonestar - gilded
13. Height of dome is 266 feet
14. The completed building was opened to the public on April 21, 1888, San Jacinto Day. [the day Texas won its independence from Mexico]
15. Ironically, there are 365 steps from its basement to the dome - one for each day of the year.
16. An extraordinary edifice by any measure, the 1888 Texas Capitol is the largest in gross square footage of all state capitols and is second in total size only to the National Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Now, for some photos of the capitol as we toured the building and grounds:

...the dome and the 'great walkway'

...each and EVERY door [from the entry doors to the interior doors] had two large hinges like this one: I would dearly give my two ovaries to have one of these. Why, I don't know. But I thought they were quite impressive. The bronze hinges and hardware produced using glass molds especially for the building by Sargent and Co. of New Haven, Connecticut, in the late 1880s. The eight inch by eight inch hinges are inscribed with the words "Texas Capitol" and weigh over seven pounds each.

When arriving on Congress Street in Downtown Austin, and finally finding a place to park, we then had to get into a large, long line of 'tourists and visitors' who were waiting to enter the capitol. When it was our turn to go through the security/detectors, we were at last inside the capitol. Before entering the rotunda, these two statues greeted us. LEFT: Stephen Austin This marble portrait statue of Stephen F. Austin, designed by sculptor Elisabeth Ney, was unveiled in the South Foyer of the Texas State Capitol on January 19, 1903. RIGHT: Sam Houston This marble portrait statue of Sam Houston, designed by sculptor Elisabeth Ney, was unveiled in the South Foyer of the Texas State Capitol on January 19, 1903. [first president of the Republic of Texas]

What was at one time, nearly a hundred years ago, where legislators and state employees cashed their paychecks in this Treasury Department room; then considered the bank of Texas. It is now an information/guide room.

...the rotunda where portraits of the Presidents of the Republic and Governors of the State circle the four public levels.

looking up while standing in the rotunda's ground floor, the dome!! And zooming in further, over 200 feet, the star [eight feet] at the top....between each star's point, it spells T E X A S

...choice of climbing the extended floors for the tour by stairs or elevators [the elevator doors had the Texas Seal etched]. But, for me, the stairwells were most eloquent and ---I chose the stairways!!! The next installment of the Texas Hill Country will be the legal part of the capitol and its grounds. This building is awesome, if you ever have a chance to tour it ---do so!!!

FURTHER READING:

Capitol Facts

Goddess of Liberty

Wikipedia - Texas State Capitol
GRANITE for the Capitol