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The Arizona State Capitol in
Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
,
Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
,
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, was the last home for Arizona's Territorial government, until Arizona became a state in 1912. Initially, all three branches of the new state government occupied the four floors of the statehouse. As the state expanded the branches relocated to adjacent buildings and additions. The 1901 portion of the Capitol is now maintained as the Arizona Capitol Museum with a focus on the history and culture of Arizona. The Arizona State Library, which occupied most of the 1938 addition until July 2017, re-opened in late 2018 as a part of the Arizona Capitol Museum.


Arizona Capitol Museum

Museum exhibits, events, and programs focus on the evolution of Arizona from Territory to State. The Arizona Takes Shape exhibit provides school-age visitors curriculum-related information for Arizona State History and government studies. The museum has over 20 exhibits featuring contemporary, historical and artifacts from the Arizona state-owned collections. Permanent exhibits include the sinking of USS ''Arizona'', the formal silver service from USS ''Arizona'', a timeline of events pivotal in making Arizona a state, the Governor and Secretary of State's original offices, the historical senate, and house. Visitors can enter the Historic House Chamber where the people can sit at the desks. There is also a room dedicated to the 140 changes in th
Arizona Constitution
over 100 years of statehood. The Governor's office on the second includes artifacts from several of Arizona's governors as well as a flag used by Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders. One impressive display shows the enormou
silver and copper punchbowl
service from , as well as a bronze sculpture that was ensconced outside the Admiral's stateroom and used as a centerpiece at state dinners wherever USS ''Arizona'' was docked. Both of these historical artifacts survived the sinking of ''Arizona'' because they had been removed from the ship for cleaning prior to the
attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...
. The punchbowl service is the only one of its kind and is composed of etched copper panels depicting desert scenes set into a silver bowl ornamented with mermaids, dolphins, waves, and other nautical themes. Of particular interest is the display of a collection of gifts received by Arizona as part of the
Merci Train The French Gratitude Train (french: Train de la reconnaissance française), commonly referred to as the Merci Train, were 49 World War I era " forty and eight" box cars gifted to the United States by France in response to the 1947 U.S. Friend ...
sent by France to the United States following World War II. The French wanted to thank America for sending the
Friendship Train The 1947 U.S. Friendship Train collected foodstuffs from American donors for transport to the people of French Fourth Republic, France and Italy. Contemporaneous with the Marshall Plan, it provided desperately needed assistance in the aftermat ...
: 250 railroad cars full of fuel, oil, and food in 1948 during a time that the European countries were devastated by World War II. Tens of thousands of French citizens donated objects to be sent to the United States and it was decided that because the outpouring of goods was so great, one boxcar would be sent to each state with one being shared between the District of Columbia and the Territory of Hawaii. All of the items were to be loaded in "Forty and Eight"-type boxcars, named after the sign painted on them which stated that 40 men or 8 horses could be loaded inside. Each car was to be adorned with the coats of arms of all of the provinces of France. The capitol building displays work by the noted Arizona artist
Lon Megargee Lon Megargee (1883–1960) was an American painter from Arizona. He did paintings of the Arizona landscape, Native Americans, and cowboys. His artwork is displayed at the Arizona State Capitol. Early life Megargee was born in 1883 in Philadelphia ...
.


History

The building was created as part of an effort to demonstrate that the
Arizona Territory The Territory of Arizona (also known as Arizona Territory) was a territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863, until February 14, 1912, when the remaining extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of ...
was ready for
statehood A state is a centralized political organization that imposes and enforces rules over a population within a territory. There is no undisputed definition of a state. One widely used definition comes from the German sociologist Max Weber: a "sta ...
. A design contest was won by
James Riely Gordon James Riely Gordon (August 2, 1863 – March 16, 1937) was an architect who practiced in San Antonio until 1902 and then in New York City, where he gained national recognition. J. Riely Gordon is best known for his landmark county courthouses, ...
, whose original plan called for the Capitol to be much larger, with a more prominent rotunda and large wings for both houses of the legislature on each side of the current building. Funding deficits meant the project had to be reduced, so the legislative wings were discarded from the plan and a small lead-alloy top substituted for Gordon's decorative dome. Construction of the Capitol began in 1898, and it began operation in 1901. In 1918 and 1938, expansions were added on the west side of the building, which had the same architecture and increased the total square footage from the original 40,000 to a final 123,000. It was home to the Legislature until 1960, when the current house and senate buildings were constructed, and the Governor's Office until 1974, when the executive tower was built. The state at that time had a plan of converting the original Capitol into a museum dedicated to Arizona's history. The original opening of the Arizona Capitol Museum was announced by Governor Bruce Babbitt at his inauguration in 1978 and hosted over 40,000 schoolchildren in that first year in 1979. After a restoration, the building was re-opened as a museum in 1981. In the 1990s, more than $3 million was spent to renovate the Capitol and rooms were restored to their original design. Again, due to budget deficits, construction was stopped on a few rooms on the third floor and they remain incomplete. The Capitol is listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
. On January 14, 2010, the Arizona State Department of Administration reported that it had sold the surrounding state buildings to private investors: the tower, the two flanking legislative buildings, and other state structures. The old Capitol was not part of this transaction. On the night of June 24, 2022, and into the morning of June 25, police and pro abortion activists clashed outside the building in protest of the Supreme Court ruling in
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ''Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization'', , is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the court held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion. The court's decision overruled both ''R ...
. The protesters numbered over 5,000 persons. The
Arizona Department of Public Safety The Arizona Department of Public Safety (AZDPS) is a state-level law enforcement agency with a primary function of patrolling and enforcing state laws on Arizona highways. Director Heston Silbert was promoted from Deputy Director to Director in ...
deployed
tear gas Tear gas, also known as a lachrymator agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the early commercial aerosol, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the eye to produce tears. In ad ...
and flash bang grenades against the protesters, forcing them to disperse. Arizona Senate Republicans accused the protestors of attempting to storm the building, with GOP State Senator
Kelly Townsend Kelly Townsend (born September 27, 1968) is an American Republican politician. She was a member of the Arizona Senate representing District 16 from 2021 to 2023, and previously was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives from 2013 to 202 ...
tweeting that the legislators were "being held hostage" and comparing the protest to the
2021 United States Capitol attack On January 6, 2021, following the defeat of then-U.S. President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, a mob of his supporters attacked the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The mob was seeking to keep Trump in pow ...
. She also called for a "J24 Committee" in reference to the
January 6 committee The United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (the January 6th Committee) is a bipartisan select committee of the U.S. House of Representatives established to investigate the U.S. C ...
.


Architecture

The building is made largely from materials indigenous to Arizona, including malapai,
granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
, and the
copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
dome. The design is optimized for the desert climate of Arizona, with thick masonry walls that insulate the interior, skylights, and round "bullseye"
clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...
windows to let heat out of the legislative chambers. The building is topped with a weather vane similar to the
Winged Victory of Samothrace The ''Winged Victory of Samothrace'', or the ''Nike of Samothrace'', is a votive monument originally found on the island of Samothrace, north of the Aegean Sea. It is a masterpiece of Greek sculpture from the Hellenistic era, dating from the beg ...
, visible through a skylight from within the rotunda.


Capitol Mall renovation proposal

As Arizona's population has grown, the Capitol complex itself has become increasingly crowded. The Senate and House buildings, opened in 1960, have been deteriorating. The Senate, in particular, is prone to constant plumbing problems, and occasionally a broken pipe floods the entire building. The Capitol itself is now used exclusively as a museum, and serves over 70,000 visitors each year, including more than 50,000 school children. In the past complaints had been made that the site was not pleasing aesthetically, and compare the Senate and House buildings as oversized "bunkers" which eclipse the beauty of the Capitol. A task force appointed by the state legislature in 2007 reported that the complex is "barely" adequate to suit the state's current needs and "wholly" inadequate to suit the state's future needs. As a result, proposals were made in 2008 to renovate or rebuild the Capitol site, to a grander site, as well as a site that will serve the needs of the government more adequately. To date, keeping the integrity of the 1901 building in original condition, including the "cramped" spaces occupied by some of the Senate and the House staff have been the main focus for the Capitol Museum administrator and staff. The building's original usage is part of the state history. Proposals for relocating some office and meeting space back into the Capitol included the House and Senate buildings undergo either a drastic rebuilding and expansion or a complete demolition and construction of new facilities for the House and Senate. A past
Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...
study planned a comprehensive redesign for the entire Capitol mall and complex.Arizona Capitol Mall District Revitalization Plan


Gallery


See also

*
Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza The Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza is an urban park and gathering place in front of the Arizona state capitol complex in downtown Phoenix, Arizona. One of the Phoenix Points of Pride, it is the site of various memorials honoring prominent figures, w ...
* USS ''Arizona'' salvaged artifacts *
List of state and territorial capitols in the United States This is a list of state and territorial capitols in the United States, the building or complex of buildings from which the government of each U.S. state, the District of Columbia and the organized territories of the United States, exercise its ...


References


External links

*
Virtual Tour of the Capitol Museum and Grounds
{{Authority control State capitols in the United States Buildings and structures in Phoenix, Arizona Government buildings with domes Government buildings in Arizona History museums in Arizona Museums in Phoenix, Arizona 1900s in Arizona Territory Government buildings completed in 1900 Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Arizona National Register of Historic Places in Phoenix, Arizona Historic American Buildings Survey in Arizona Tourist attractions in Phoenix, Arizona James Riely Gordon buildings Neoclassical architecture in Arizona 1900 establishments in Arizona Territory