The Colorado State Capitol Building, located at 200 East Colfax Avenue in Denver, Colorado, United States, is the home of the Colorado General Assembly and the offices of the Governor of Colorado and

Lieutenant Governor of Colorado The lieutenant governor of Colorado is the second-highest-ranking member of the executive department of the Government of Colorado, United States, below the governor of Colorado. The lieutenant governor of Colorado, who acts as governor of Colorad ...

History

The building is intentionally reminiscent of the United States Capitol. Designed by

Elijah E. Myers Elijah E. Myers (December 29, 1832 – March 5, 1909) was a leading architect of government buildings in the latter half of the 19th century, and the only architect to design the capitol buildings of three U.S. states, the Michigan State Capito ...

, it was constructed in the 1890s from Colorado white granite, and opened for use in November 1894. The distinctive gold dome consists of real

gold leaf Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...

, first added in 1908, commemorating the

Colorado Gold Rush The Pike's Peak Gold Rush (later known as the Colorado Gold Rush) was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 a ...

. The building is part of Denver's Civic Center area. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Civic Center Historic District in 1974, With Includes __ photos. () and became part of the Denver Civic Center National Historic Landmark District in 2012. A major safety upgrade project, funded by the Colorado State Historical Fund, was started in 2001 and completed in 2009. The design by Fentress Architects added modern safety features, like enclosed stair towers, that blend in with the original architecture. The Colorado Capitol Building is featured on many of Denver's Architectural tours.

Building

Serving as the beginning of the Capitol Hill district, the historic building sits slightly higher than the rest of downtown Denver. The main entrance hall is open 180 feet (55 m) to the top of the dome, about the height of an 18-story building. Additionally, the official elevation of Denver is measured outside the west entrance to the building, where the fifteenth step is engraved with the words "One Mile Above Sea Level". From this step, at , the sun can be seen setting behind the Rocky Mountains. A second mile high marker was set in the 18th step in 1969 when

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

students resurveyed the elevation. In 2003, a more accurate measurement was made with modern means, and the 13th step was identified as being one mile (1.6 km) high, where a 3rd marker was installed.

Materials

The

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

of the building was constructed using granite from the

Aberdeen Quarry The Aberdeen Quarry is an abandoned granite quarry in Gunnison County, Colorado. It is located along South Beaver Creek, south-southwest of Gunnison. The Aberdeen Quarry was most active from 1889 to 1892 as it supplied granite for the constru ...

near Gunnison, Colorado. Approximately or 24,000 tons of the granite were quarried for the building. This gray granite forms the exterior of the building. The interior of the building uses a large amount of Colorado Rose Onyx, a rare rose marble from a quarry near

Beulah, Colorado Beulah is an unincorporated community and a post office located within the Beulah Valley census-designated place in Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The Beulah Post Office has the ZIP code 81023. Beulah is a part of the Beulah Valley C ...

. The amount used in the building consumed the entire known supply. White Yule Marble from the quarries near Marble, Colorado was also used throughout the capitol for the floors. Many designs have been found in the marble including an image resembling

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

and another of Molly Brown. Many of the windows are

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

, depicting people or events related to the history of Colorado. The halls are decorated with portraits of every president of the United States, with all the presidents from

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

being painted by Lawrence Williams. Painter Sarah A. Boardman took over from Williams, and has since painted Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden as well. One of the contractors for the construction of the Colorado State Capitol building was Illinois building contractor William Douglas Richardson, who was the president of the W. D. Richardson Construction Company. Richardson had participated in numerous major building contracts throughout the United States, and was interconnected with the

Jacob Bunn :''This article concerns John Whitfield Bunn, Jacob Bunn, and the entrepreneurs who were interconnected with the Bunn brothers through association or familial and genealogical connection.'' John Whitfield Bunn (June 21, 1831 – June 7, 1920)Ill ...

and

John Whitfield Bunn :''This article concerns John Whitfield Bunn, Jacob Bunn, and the entrepreneurs who were interconnected with the Bunn brothers through association or familial and genealogical connection.'' John Whitfield Bunn (June 21, 1831 – June 7, 1920)Ill ...

network of corporations.William Douglas Richardson was the father of Jacob Bunn's daughter-in-law.

Gallery

Image:Coloradocapitolhill1.JPG, Colorado State Capitol (back view) Image:ColoradoStateCapitolSupremeCourtChambers gobeirne.jpg, Old Colorado Supreme Court chambers Image:Denver Capitol IMG 20180416 150216.jpg, Rotunda interior Image:COCapitolDirectView.jpg, Rotunda interior direct view Image:ColoradoStateCapitolSenateChamber_gobeirne.jpg, Colorado Senate Chamber Image:ColoradoStateCapitolHouseOfRepresentatives_gobeirne.jpg,

Colorado House of Representatives The Colorado House of Representatives is the lower house of the Colorado General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Colorado. The House is composed of 65 members from an equal number of constituent districts, with each distr ...

Image:ColoradoStateCapitolGalleryOfPresidents_gobeirne.jpg, Gallery of Presidents Image:Colorado_state_capitol_aerial_1.jpg, Aerial view

References

External links