State Capitols – Denver, Colorado - Inside

Elijah Myers, the leading architect of government buildings in the late 19th century, designed the Colorado capitol. He is the only person who created three state houses, the others being in Michigan and Texas. There was a second post for each of the capitols (MI and TX).

Atrium, Colorado Capitol,

Denver (23 August 2011)

The legislative chambers’ furnishings are mostly original. The lighting has been improved to accommodate television cameras. The capitol is large enough to house offices for each of the 35 senators and 65 representatives.

Colorado House of Representatives (23 August 2011)

The House consists of 65 members elected to two-year terms. After my visit, from 2014-16, the House and Senate chambers were renovated to restore them to their former historic appearance. Ten years ago, this capitol became the first state house in the country to be cooled by geothermal power.

Colorado Senate (23 August 2011)

Thirty-five Senators are elected to four-year terms.

Every two years, half of the Senate seats are up for election.

Colorado Capitol, Denver (23 August 2011)

Polished brass railings and balusters reflect the golden

dome’s shine into the interior of the building.

Old Colorado Supreme Court,

State Capitol, Denver (23 August 2011)

Until 1977, when it moved into its own building, the state

Supreme Court operated in the north wing of the capitol.

Grand Staircase

Colorado Capitol, Denver (23 August 2011)

Many state houses of that era had grand staircases. Grand interior spaces all decorated and embellished need a grand way to access the next floor. To reinforce the word more, it’s a grand place for meet-ups and group photographs.

 

Rose Onyx Marble on the Grand Staircase

Colorado Capitol, Denver (23 August 2011)

Unique to this building is the rose onyx marble that lines the grand staircase and other parts of the building. It took six years to fashion and install and it turns out that the now-depleted source of this type of marble near Pueblo had just enough to complete the job. The stone has not been found anywhere else on the planet.

Rotunda, Colorado Capitol, Denver (23 August 2011)

The Colorado capital city is also the state’s most populous. Sixteen other states can say the same. Maybe it’s the size of the city that triggers the following impression. Big cities have issues. More people often mean more people with difficulties. It’s a proportional thing. Maybe Denver has gotten a handle on this after twelve years but in 2011, the capitol grounds were not in good shape. The landscaping was unkempt and many homeless were about. While I was there, an ambulance came to treat someone who was unresponsive.

The other big city trait was the level of security at the entrance. As I’ve noted before, while some state houses are open, inviting and easy to enter, others take security to a much higher level. While the capitol police here were friendly, I did have to pass everything I was carrying through their machine before I was allowed to enter. Such is life in the Big City.

Still, a fascinating, gleaming, shiny capitol that I was glad to visit.

State Capitols – Denver, Colorado - Outside

Colorado Capitol in Denver (22 August 2011)

Constructed:1886-1908

Architect: Elijah E. Myers

State Admitted to Union: August 1, 1876 (38th)

State Population (2020): 5,773,714 (21st)

I’m watching the NBA finals and realize the game is being played in a state capital that I have not yet presented. Also, following the plain and ordinary Alaska capitol with one of the more elaborate state houses will be fun. I will suggest that the Colorado capitol in Denver is the shiniest of them all. But first, the exterior.

Gold has a way of influencing an area’s geo-political prospects. For example, in 1848, the territory of California was annexed as part of the spoils of the war with Mexico. That same year, gold was discovered there. Two years later, after a massive influx of prospectors and settlers, California became our 31st state.

Colorado Capitol, Denver (23 August 2011)

Part of what is now Colorado came to us through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and most of the rest was added after we beat up Mexico. Spanish settlers who had been there for three hundred years and the native tribes that had been there for thousands more were minor impediments to our ‘Manifest Destiny’...and nothing speeds up the Manifest Destiny timeline like gold.

In 1858, gold was discovered near Denver. Three years later, Congress formally created the Colorado Territory. Fortune-seekers swarmed in. In 1876, the ‘Centennial State’ became our 38th state, as the nation celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

Colorado Capitol, Denver (22 August 2011)

The capitol is known for its use of Colorado materials...the foundation is sandstone from Fort Collins and the exterior is granite from Gunnison. Above the three-story building is a magnificent dome that tops out at 272 feet from the ground. The architect Myers wanted to cover the dome with copper. Since Colorado does not produce copper, the state mining association donated 200 ounces of 24 karat gold leaf to cover the dome. In 1906, that cost $14,680. The gold has been re-done at least four times since then; the most recent, in 2012, required 65 ounces of pure gold at a cost of $125,000.

It is interesting to note that the use of all that local stone had its limits. The dome’s walls and columns are cast iron made to look like granite. They figured that more stone at that height would be too heavy to support.

 

Civil War Monument

By Jakob Otto Schweizer [1909]

Colorado Capitol, Denver (22 August 2011)

Schweizer also has seven works in the Gettysburg

National Battlefield, more than any other sculptor.

The names of many soldiers are inscribed below the statue. Though not yet a state, Colorado sent troops to fight on the Union side. Given the date of the installation, one wonders if the pending 50th anniversary of the conflict heightened interest in memorializing the time. Being the most cataclysmic event in our history, it should. Besides, at that time, the former Confederate states were throwing up glorious monuments by the score.

View From the Capitol Dome, Denver (23 August 2011)

Along with the Kansas capitol in Topeka, Colorado’s capitol is the only other one with tours that include taking you up into the dome. From there one can see the Denver City and County Building and the Front Range of the Rockies in the distance.

Closing Era

By Preston Powers [1893]

Colorado Capitol, Denver (22 August 2011)

First exhibited at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, this is the first sculpture placed on the capitol grounds and presents a sympathetic view that Native American life was fading away. Searches will show the work is also called ‘Closing of an Era’ (which makes more sense) but the state’s own reference materials omit the middle words.

Sidewalk Upright, Denver (23 August 2011)

A few blocks from the capitol is this piano on the sidewalk. People are invited to play it. Sweet street scene. Can’t imagine this working in some rough neighborhoods I know or in the sub-tropical humidity of the deep South.

Next, the gleaming interior.

State Capitols – Juneau, Alaska – Part 2

I don’t mean to be disparaging when I say the Juneau capitol is small and ‘ordinary.’ It contains all the offices and functions of a state...a state with less than half the number of residents in the Bronx, one of five boroughs in the City of New York in the State of New York.

Since I’ve seen them all, I know that many state houses were built during golden ages when classic designs and exotic materials were used. The current Alaska capitol, built when the territory’s population was 60,000, was a straight-forward affair, meant to accommodate the necessary governing bodies...almost thirty years before statehood was achieved.

Public School # 83

Bronx, New York (31 October 2006)

Speaking of the Bronx, scroll back to Part 1 and observe the striking resemblance the Juneau capitol has to my elementary school, one block from home. Built at the same time, it appears government buildings had a certain prescribed appearance.

Back to Juneau. While I lingered outside, Beck went inside and informed the two, armed security guards of my quest that was about to end. When I entered the lobby, they applauded the latest Complete Capitol Collector. Fun. No frisking or running my stuff through a machine. Have to love these low-key, friendlier states.

Front Page of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Alaska Capitol, Juneau (16 May 2023)

Among the photographs and personages that line

the walls, there are a number of newspaper front

pages that proclaimed Alaska’s statehood in 1959.

While we were in the empty Senate chamber, Beck asked one of the pages, “What is the one special thing a serious capitol collector has to see in this building?” He said we had to go to the fifth floor Senate Finance Committee room and see Uhtred Permanentfundsen, Defender of the Permanent Fund.

Entry to the Senate Finance Committee Room

Alaska Capitol, Juneau (16 May 2023)

When Alaska was a territory, it was divided into four judicial districts. This room was once the Superior Court of Territorial District One. The restored room has retained the lighting and benches from that period.

Senate Finance Committee Room

Alaska Capitol, Juneau (16 May 2023)

There, beneath a striking painting of a polar bear, is the carved head of a Viking-like character.

Uhtred Permanentfundsen,

Alaska Capitol, Juneau (16 May 2023)

The state’s Permanent Fund is the annual payout every citizen in Alaska gets from oil and gas royalties. In recent years, that amounted to $3000 for every person who has resided in the state for a full year. One can appreciate the desire to keep that gravy train going...and the political death sentence it represents for anyone who thinks they have a better use for the money. Hence, this character keeps his steely gaze cast on everyone conducting Finance Committee business.
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One embarks on a quest with the endpoint in mind. The State House Odyssey began in 2008 when the Dead Presidents Quest ended. I had to find another subject to pursue as I trekked to Kansas and Texas to find the last two presidents’ graves. However bland the Grand Finale was, it still marks the date for all perpetuity. From this day forward, May 16 will be a holiday and everyone at Images and More will have the day off.

It has been a most rewarding experience appreciating the architecture and learning the history of fine public spaces...each one special in its own way. I consider myself lucky to have reached this point and I look forward to presenting the rest of our nation’s fine state houses in future posts.