Nevada State Capitol

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nevada State Capitol
(U.S. National Register of Historic Places)
Front of the building
Location:	Carson City, Nevada
Coordinates:	39°9′50.67″N, 119°45′58.65″W
Built/Founded:	1871
Architect:	Joseph Gosling
Architectural style(s):	Italianate
Added to NRHP:	June 10, 1975
Reference #:	75002126 [1]
Governing body:	Carson City, Nevada

The Nevada State Capitol is the capitol building of the U.S. state of Nevada. It is located in the state capital of Carson City at 101 N. Carson Street. The building was constructed between 1869 and 1871.

Contents 1 Construction 2 Architecture 3 Usage 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Construction

Abraham Curry, the founder of Carson City, reserved an area equivalent to four city blocks (10 acres or 4.04 ha) at the center of the town for the future state capitol. When the Capitol building was constructed, it was naturally located on "the plaza", which had, some ten or eleven years earlier, been designated for it, and given for that purpose.

As Mark Twain wrote in Roughing It, today's capitol site was in 1861, "a large, unfenced, level vacancy, with a liberty pole in it, and very useful as a place for public auctions, horse trades, mass meetings, and likewise for teamsters to camp in."

The "act to provide for the erection of a State Capitol" was passed and signed into law in 1869. The Board of Capitol Commissioners received bids of $84,000 to $160,000 for construction and they chose the lowest bid, submitted by Peter Cavanaugh and Son of Carson City. The 1869 act authorized $100,000 for construction, with money to come from a special tax levy, plus the proceeds from the sale of some public land. To keep costs down, the building sandstone was obtained free of charge from the Nevada State Prison quarry, just outside of Carson City. In spite of this, the construction costs mounted to some $170,000, exceeding even the high bid.

The cornerstone was laid on June 9, 1870. A brass box that served as a time capsule was deposited in the stone. However, which stone is the actual cornerstone is currently unknown.

The fourth session of the state legislature met in the still-incomplete building at the beginning of 1871. Construction was completed by May 1, 1871. Several of the architect's original drawings are preserved in the state archives.

[edit] Architecture

The original building was cruciform, with a central rectangle 76 feet wide by 85 feet deep (23 x 25.8 m). It had with two wings, each 35 feet wide by 52 feet deep (10.6 x 15.8 m). The windows' glass panes are made of 26-ounce (737 g) French crystal, as are those above the doors. Floors and wainscotting are of Alaskan marble, shipped to San Francisco in 20-ton (18,144 kg) blocks and there cut and polished for installation.

The first floor contained a major office at each corner connect by central halls, while the wings of the second floor were filled by the two legislative chambers--the Assembly and the Senate. The octagonal dome topped with a cupola admitted light to the second story. In 1906, an octagonal Annex was added to the rear (east) of the capitol to house the State Library.

By the early 20th century, the legislature had outgrown the capitol, and prominent Nevada architect Frederic DeLongchamps was contracted to design northern and southern legislative wings, completed in time for the 1915 session. These compatible wings used stone from the same quarry as the original portion of the capitol, and provided more office space and expanded legislative chambers.

[edit] Usage

For more than 50 years, all three branches of the state government were housed in the Capitol. The Supreme Court met here until 1937, when it moved into an adjacent building and the Nevada Legislature met here until 1971, when it moved to its new Legislative Building just south of the Capitol. Every Nevada governor except the first has had his office in the capitol. Today, the Capitol continues to serve the Governor, and contains historical exhibits on the second floor.

[edit] References

• Nevada State Capitol (data pages). Historic American Buildings Survey. National Parks Service (Summer, 1973). Retrieved on 2007-03-22.
• Nevada State Capitol. Three Historic Nevada Cities. National Parks Service. Retrieved on 2007-03-22.

[edit] External links

• Nevada State Capitol history
• Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 39.1640762° -119.7662923°
  • Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps
  • Topographic map from TopoZone
  • Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
  • Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth

State Capitols of the United States
Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia	Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland	Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey	New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina	South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming