The Texas Capitol building has been on the National Register of Historic Properties since 1970.
While the PDF of the entire nomination form is not available online, the narrative from that form can be found in the Texas Historic Commission's Atlas: (
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"The Texas State Capitol building is a three-story structure, with a four-story central block, with exterior masonry-bearing walls faced in Texas red granite. Modeled on the design of the national capitol in Washington, D.C., the building features a dome at the crossing of its major axes. The dome rests upon a masonry drum, with the upper sections of the dome proper fabricated in metal, the exterior surface painted to simulate the granite of the exterior walls. The interior of the structure features monumental and elaborately detailed door frames, with cast-iron staircases placed alongside the rotunda. The two legislative chambers occupy the second floor of the structure, with the basement, first, third, and fourth floors being devoted to office space.
The Texas State Capitol building is located at the crest of a hill overlooking downtown Austin and the distant Colorado River. The setting for the building was an integral part of the 1839 plan of the city of Austin prepared by Edwin Waller. The principal elevation of the capitol faces south, with the central block measuring 289 feet from north to south, and the east-west measurement of the building at its greatest length reaching 566 feet, 6 inches.
The overall conception of the design is clearly based upon that of the national capitol in Washington, although there are substantial differences in terms of architectural detailing and finishes. The north and south elevations are five-part compositions, the central bays of which serve as the principal entrances to the structure. The south entry is framed by a colossal three-story archway, while the north entrance is set within a three-story columnar portico. The east and west elevations were originally planned to feature similar porticoes, but these were eliminated from construction plans due to the increased cost of such elements. The central pavilions on the north and south elevations rise four stories, and are five bays in width. The projecting wings which house the two legislative chambers are recessed back from the central block, and contain five facade bays arranged in an AABAA pattern. The flanking pavilions, which also form the east and west elevations of the structure, are each three bays in width on the north and south elevations, and nine bays in width on the east and west elevations.
The dome which surmounts the intersection of the east west and north-south interior axes of the building is a more vertically proportioned version of the dome of the national capitol. In height, it measures 250 feet from the floor of the basement to the base of the lantern. The Renaissance inspired detailing of the exterior of the dome, including the columned drum, is executed in galvanized iron painted to match the color of the red granite which the masonry walls of the building. The lantern of the dome is topped by a cast zinc statue representing the Goddess of Liberty, in whose raised left hand is held a five-pointed star, an iconographic symbol borrowed from the state flag.
The exterior walls of the capitol are faced with red granite quarried near Burnet, Texas. The great majority of the stone is quarry faced, with the only dressed ashlar work being confined to the shafts of the columns and pilasters which articulate the bays of the facades. The most monumental blocks of granite are set in the first floor walls, with blocks of lesser scale and texture of finish being used on the upper floors. The stonework is carried up to the parapets on the north and south elevations of the central block.
The interior of the capitol is dominated, on the first floor, by the broad east-west hallway, which is flanked by suites of legislators' offices, and the vast space of the rotunda. The lobby spaces to the north and south of the rotunda serve mainly as preludes to the rotunda space. The second floor houses the chambers for the Senate and House of Representatives, with offices in the east and west ends for Speaker of the House and President of the Senate. The third and fourth floors contain more legislators offices. The detailing of the interior reflects the classical character of the exterior. The monumental cast-iron columns of the interior feature Corinthian capitals, a device also found on the more laboratory detailed door frames, most of which are of carved oak. The rotunda features galleries on the second, third, and fourth floors, supported on massive console brackets of cast iron. The Senate and House chambers are set to either side of the rotunda space. These primary public spaces were lit by large skylights, the interior glazing of which consisted of large rectangular panes of inch-thick glass sandblasted with the state seal at their center. The opaque character of these panels diffused the light into the chambers. While several of these glass panels survive, many have been removed over the years. Spectators' space galleries ring the legislative chambers on three sides.
The only significant interior space to have been seriously altered from its original design is the legislative library, which is located in the north section of the central block. Originally built as a two-story space illuminated by a skylight and glass blocks in the floor, the space has had its skylight filled in and the glass block flooring removed. Some of the book stack shelving still remains in use today.
Shortly after its completion in 1888, the state capitol site was further improved by the erection of a composition cast- and wrought-iron fence surrounding the twenty-seven acre capitol grounds. Executed by the Springfield, Ohio, firm of Mast, Foos and Company, the fence features five pointed stars as caps for each of its pickets.
The Texas State Capitol represents the high-water mark in the career of its architect, Elijah E. Myers, described by the architectural historians Henry Russell Hitchcock and William Seale as "the greatest capitol-builder of the Gilded Age." The building reflects the popularity of the national capitol in Washington, D.C. as the prototype for state capitol buildings in the post-Civil War era. The product of an architectural competition judged by a prominent architect, the Texas State Capitol building is the largest such structure in the United States. " [end]