The Montana State Capitol is the

state capitol 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 ...

of the U.S. state of

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

that houses the

Montana State Legislature The Montana State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Montana. It is composed of the 100-member Montana House of Representatives and the 50-member Montana Senate. The Montana Constitution dictates that the legislature meet ...

which is located in the state capital of Helena at 1301 East Sixth Avenue. The building was constructed between 1896 and 1902 with wing-annexes added between 1909 and 1912.

History

design competition A design competition or design contest is a competition in which an entity solicits design proposals from the public for a specified purpose. Architecture An architectural design competition solicits architects to submit design proposals for a b ...

for the building was conducted in 1896. The commission selected a design by George R. Mann as the winner. In 1897, after it was found that the Commission was planning to scam money from the building project, it was disbanded and a second Capitol Commission was convened. The new Commission abandoned Mann's plan as being too costly, and had a second design competition, won by Charles Emlen Bell and John Hackett Kent, of Bell & Kent of

Council Bluffs, Iowa Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The city is the most populous in Southwest Iowa, and is the third largest and a primary city of the Omaha–Council Bluffs ...

. In order to have their design built, Bell & Kent relocated their office to Helena. While Mann's building was never built in Montana, it was selected later as the basic design for the

Arkansas State Capitol The Arkansas State Capitol, often called the Capitol Building, is the home of the Arkansas General Assembly, and the seat of the Arkansas state government that sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the Capitol Mall in Little Rock, Arkan ...

. The winning design by Bell & Kent had been altered already during the construction phase, when in 1901 the commission asked for the structure to be made more imposing by increasing the height of the dome. Kent opposed the changes, as his original low spherical dome was meant to be "pure Greek", but Bell advocated the commission's request. Between 1909 and 1912, the building was extended by the addition of two new wings on the eastern and western sides. This work was executed by Link & Haire, architects of

Butte __NOTOC__ In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word mea ...

, with F. M. Andrews & Company of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

as consulting architects.

Architecture

The building, constructed of Montana

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

and

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 ...

, is in

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neoclassical

architectural style An architectural style is a set of characteristics and features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. It is a sub-class of style in the visual arts generally, and most styles in architecture relate closely ...

, and 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 ...

. The exterior of the dome is covered with copper. Atop the dome is a feminine statue affectionately dubbed ''Montana''. The ''Montana'' statue, formerly known as ''Lady Liberty'' sits atop the Capitol dome.

Art

House Chambers Lewis and Clark Meet the Flathead Indians

The most notable feature inside the center of the Capitol building is the massive rotunda, with four circular paintings surrounding it. These paintings, painted for the Capitol opening in 1902 by the firm of F. Pedretti's Sons, depict four important archetypes of people of Montana's early history: a Native American (intended to be of

Chief Charlo Charlo (also Charlot; Claw of the Little Grizzly or Small Grizzly-Bear Claw) (c. 1830–1910) was head chief of the Bitterroot Salish from 1870 to 1910. Charlo followed a policy of peace with the American settlers in Southwestern Montana and with ...

), an explorer and fur trapper (

Jim Bridger James Felix "Jim" Bridger (March 17, 1804 – July 17, 1881) was an American mountain man, trapper, Army scout, and wilderness guide who explored and trapped in the Western United States in the first half of the 19th century. He was known as Old ...

), a gold miner (Henry Finnis Edgar, one of the discoverers of gold at

Alder Gulch Alder Gulch (alternatively called Alder Creek) is a place in the Ruby River valley, in the U.S. state of Montana, where gold was discovered on May 26, 1863, by William Fairweather and a group of men including Barney Hughes, Thomas Cover, Henr ...

), and a cowboy (unidentified, but said to be inspired by the works of

C.M. Russell Charles Marion Russell (March 19, 1864 – October 24, 1926), also known as C. M. Russell, Charlie Russell, and "Kid" Russell, was an American artist of the American Old West. He created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Native Americans, an ...

). The Pendretti brothers provided additional commissioned artwork in the Senate and Old Supreme Court Chambers. The southern arch of the rotunda features the semi-elliptical painting ''Driving The Golden Spike'', painted by

Amédée Joullin Amédée Joullin (3 June 1862, in San Francisco – 3 February 1917, in San Francisco) was a French American painter whose work centered on the landscapes of California and on Native Americans. Biography He was born in San Francisco to French ...

. The former State Law Library, now a set of committee rooms, features ten Montana landscapes created by Ralph E. DeCamp. The House of Representatives Lobby features six scenes depicting significant events in early Montana History by Edgar S. Paxson. The most significant piece of art in the Capitol is by Montana's famous Western artist Charles M. Russell. The 1912 painting, titled ''Lewis and Clark Meeting the Flathead Indians at Ross' Hole,'' is long and twelve feet high. It depicts the explorers

Lewis and Clark Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...

meeting Montana's

Bitterroot Salish The Bitterroot Salish (or Flathead, Salish, Selish) are a Salish-speaking group of Native Americans, and one of three tribes of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation in Montana. The Flathead Reservation is home to th ...

people upon their return across the

Bitterroot Mountains The Northern and Central Bitterroot Range, collectively the Bitterroot Mountains (Salish: čkʷlkʷqin), is the largest portion of the Bitterroot Range, part of the Rocky Mountains and Idaho Batholith, located in the panhandle of Idaho and west ...

from the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. It is now displayed above the Speaker's chair in the House of Representatives' chamber.

References

External links

Historic images of the Montana State Capitol

Visiting information and history
{{Authority control Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Montana Government of Montana State capitols in the United States Government buildings with domes Tourist attractions in Helena, Montana 1902 establishments in Montana National Register of Historic Places in Helena, Montana Renaissance Revival architecture in Montana

History

Architecture

Art

See also

References

External links