The Texas State Capitol Building - Rotunda Cross Section - Green - Etching Paper Print

Authorized by the Post- Reconstruction Constitution of 1875, the Texas capitol was designed by architect Elijah E. Myers of Detroit in 1881 and finally dedicated in 1888 after several design changes, including the exterior stone. Winner of a nationwide competition, the elongated Greek cross plan exhibits "beaux arts" classicism and was heavily influenced by Soufflot’s late Renaissance Pantheon in Paris and Thomas O. Walter’s 1865 cast iron dome addition to the U.S. Capitol. Billed as the seventh largest building in the world, it housed all offices of state government except the land office and was paid for with 3,025,000 acres of public land - part of Texas’ unique 47,000,000 acre legacy gained from the Compromise of 1850, five years after statehood. 

Original elevations, designed for local limestone,were ornate, with Italian Renaissance detailing; including parapet statuary, urns, acroteria, balustrades, intricate corinthian column capitols, fluted pilasters, and elaborate modillions and moldings. All vanished in the summer of 1885 when governor John Ireland changed the stone from the soft Oatmanville (Oak Hill) limestone to Texas’ sunset red granite from Marble Falls. Aside from profound alterations in detail and color, a change deleted east and west porticoes and most interior amenities such as marble wainscoting and bronze columns and balusters. In exchange, Texas has benefited immeasurably from the impermeable, maintenance-free exterior. 

Although dissatisfied with the change of material, this foremost architect of public buildings of the era came to regard the Texas Capitol as his best design, displaying it on his letterhead. The building has endured a near- disastrous fire in 1983 and numerous remodels. In 1986 it was named a national historic landmark.