Texas State Capitol map
30.27° N · 97.74° W · Austin, Travis County · 22-acre grounds · finished 1888
The Texas State Capitol stands on a rise at the head of Congress Avenue in downtown Austin. It was finished in 1888, faced in red granite quarried in the Hill Country, and measures about 302 feet from the ground to the Goddess of Liberty on top of the dome, which makes it taller than the United States Capitol in Washington.
The grounds fill four downtown blocks between 11th and 15th streets. Congress Avenue runs south from the front gate toward the river.
Where it is and how to get there
The capitol grounds are bounded by 11th Street on the south, 15th Street on the north, Colorado Street on the west and San Jacinto Boulevard on the east. I-35 runs down the eastern edge of downtown; the 15th Street exits put you two blocks from the north gate. The University of Texas campus begins about half a mile north across Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and the Colorado River, dammed here as Lady Bird Lake, is a mile straight down Congress Avenue.
From San Antonio it is 80 miles north on I-35. From Houston it is about 165 miles by US-290 and SH-71. From Dallas it is roughly 195 miles south on I-35, passing Waco at the halfway mark. Coming from the north side of the metro, Round Rock and Georgetown in Williamson County are 20 and 30 miles up the same freeway.
The building and the grounds
| Part | Where and what |
|---|---|
| South approach | The main entrance faces 11th Street; a wide walk lined with monuments runs from the gate to the front steps |
| Rotunda and dome | The central well under the dome, with a terrazzo floor showing the seals of the six sovereign flags and portrait galleries ringing the upper floors |
| Legislative chambers | The House and Senate sit in the two wings on the second floor, with public galleries above them |
| Capitol Extension | Four levels dug beneath the north lawn and opened in 1993; office space and hearing rooms lit through a skylit courtyard, connected to the old building by tunnel |
| Visitors center | The 1850s General Land Office building at the southeast corner of the grounds, the oldest state office building in Texas |
| North lawn and Capitol Mall | Open ground running north toward the state history museum on Congress Avenue |
| Governor's Mansion | One block southwest, at 11th and Colorado, occupied by governors since the 1850s |
| Grounds walks | Shaded paths and monument groupings on all four sides, open to the public outside the building's own security screening |
How it was paid for
The previous capitol burned in 1881. Rather than raise taxes, the state traded land: about three million acres of the Panhandle went to the contractors in exchange for the building, and that block of country became the XIT Ranch. The design came from Elijah E. Myers, an architect from Detroit who also drew the Michigan and Colorado capitols. The red granite was donated from Granite Mountain near Marble Falls, roughly 50 miles northwest in the Hill Country, and hauled in on a railroad spur built for the job. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986 and went through a long restoration in the early 1990s, at the same time as the underground extension was dug.
Why you can still see the dome
Austin protects the view. Since the 1980s state law has defined a set of Capitol View Corridors — roughly thirty sightlines running in from bridges, parks and street ends around the city — and buildings inside them are capped in height so the dome stays visible. This is the reason downtown's tower cluster has odd gaps in it, and why some blocks in Central Texas's densest square mile are still low-rise. Congress Avenue itself is the oldest of these axes, laid out in Edwin Waller's 1839 plan for the city with the hilltop reserved for the capitol from the start.
The grounds are public open space; the building has its own entry procedures, which change from session to session.