Colorado State Capitol

Colorado State Capitol Virtual Tour

Colorado State Capitol Building Fact Sheet

Corner Stone

Laid July 4, 1890. Completed, 1908

Altitude

One Mile High (5,280 ft)

Design

Corinthian Style, with a Greek Cross floor plan

Materials

The building was constructed using all Colorado material except the brass and oak trimmings. Granite was quarried from Gunnison. The wainscoting and pillar facings are of Colorado Onyx, a material unique only to the Colorado Capitol. When this rare stone's supply was exhausted the basement was finished in white marble. The foundations and walls are Fort Collins Sandstone.

Dimensions

(as designed by E.E. Myers, W.D. Richardson, and R.C. Greiner in 1886)

North and South Sides = 294ft 4in

Projections, 6ft 5inches each	13ft 10in
Porticoes, 13ft 5inches each	26ft 10in
Approaches, 24ft 5 inches each	48ft 11in
Extreme Length	383ft 11in

East and West Sides = 230ft 10in

Porticoes, 13ft 5inches each	26ft 10in
West Approaches	32ft 6in
East Approaches	22ft 10in
Extreme Width	313ft

Height, from grade line to bulb

272ft

Diameter of Dome	42ft
Sub-basement	14ft 6in
Basement	15ft 2in	33rooms
First Story	21ft	45rooms
Second Story	21ft 4in	49rooms
Third Story	20ft 4in	33rooms

Projected Cost (1886)

$1,000,000

Final Cost (1896)

$2,800,000

Trivia

The capitol contains 240,000 cubic feet of granite.
The Capitol's Original Dome incorporated more than 7 tons of lead.
The Cornerstone weighs twenty tons and it took twenty mules to haul it.
The Gold Dome was created using 200 ounces of pure gold leaf.
There are 94 steps to the dome's observation deck.
The 122 columns are of cast iron and on average weigh 1.7 tons each.
The Capitol used 5,482,114 bricks.
The Foundation is made up of 332,616 cubic feet of stone.

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last modified June 20, 2003