Interior view of the dome.
The Texas capitol building was completed in 1888 as the "winning design in a national competition." The Renaissance Revival building was designed by architect Elijah E. Myers, who also designed the Michigan and Colorado capitols.
The Goddess of Liberty statue was placed atop the dome in 1888. The exterior walls are "sunset red" grant, quarried from nearby Marble Falls. The quarry donated the granite, and the state provided 1,000 convicts to be used as stonecutters. In 1885, the granite cutters union objected to convict labor and Scottish stonecutters were imported to complete the quarry work.
The building also has cast iron columns and beams, and masonry walls. Construction was paid for with 3 million acres of land in the Panhandle, which would later become the XIT ranch. The capitol building is the largest gross square footage of all state capitols and the second only to the nation's capitol in DC. It is, however, 15 feet taller.
Whilst our South African friends were visiting the US for their first time, this Texas officer introduced them to such Texas sayings as "Jeet yet?" and "Sgweet." (Translation: Did you eat yet? Let's go eat.)
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