GOVERNORS OF MINNESOTA
Facts About the State Capitol
 
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The Minnesota State Capitol is:
434 feet long.
229 feet wide.
223 feet high.
The exterior dome is 89 feet in diameter.
The interior dome is 60 feet in diameter.
The Capitol was built at a cost of $4.5 million.
The present structure is Minnesota's third state capitol building. The first two buildings were located in downtown St. Paul
on a city block bordered by Wabasha, Exchange, Cedar and
10th Street. The first capitol was destroyed by fire. The second was too small and poorly constructed.
Images of the first state capitol
Images of the second state capitol
The contract for the current capitol was awarded in 1895.
Construction started in 1896.
Alexander Ramsey laid the first cornerstone in 1898.
The dome was completed in 1902.
The building opened in 1905.
Images of the construction.
Cass Gilbert was the architect of the Minnesota state capitol. He also designed:
U.S. Supreme Court building (Washington, D.C.).
Woolworth building (New York City).
U.S. Customs House (New York City).
West Virginia state capitol.
Arkansas state capitol (begun by George R. Mann).
More about Cass Gilbert.
Almost one hundred items were placed in the granite cornerstone of the new capitol building in 1898.
The steps and ground floor exterior stone of the capitol is St. Cloud Granite and the upper stories and dome is made of white Georgia marble.
The large dome consists of three structures: an inner decorative dome, seen from the rotunda, a steel and brick cone, and the outer self-supporting marble dome.
Daniel Chester French—sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial—designed the quadriga or golden horses on the exterior of the building.
Images of the quadriga.
The quadriga figures are made of copper and covered with 23-½ karat gold leaf. As part of an extensive restoration project, the quadriga was removed from the capitol in 1994, restored and returned in 1995.
The first governor to use the Governor's Reception Room was Samuel Van Sant who moved into the space in December 1904, a few weeks before the end of his term in office.
Images of the Governor's Reception Room.
There are four Civil War paintings in the Governor's Reception Room:
The Battle of Gettysburg
by Rufus F. Zogbaum
The Second Minnesota Regiment at Missionary Ridge
by Douglas Volk
The Battle of Nashville
by Howard Pyle
The Fourth Minnesota Regiment Entering Vicksburg
by Francis D. Millet
Plus two more in the anteroom:
The Third Minnesota Regiment Entering Little Rock
by Stanley Arthurs
The Battle of Corinth
by Edwin H. Blashfield
The other two paintings inside the Governor's Reception Room are:
The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux
by Francis D. Millet
Father Louis Hennepin Discovering the Falls of St. Anthony
by Douglas Volk
The Rathskeller cafeteria was restored to its original appearance in 1999. There were twenty-two layers of paint covering the decoration and German language mottoes originally painted on the walls and ceilings.
Images of the Rathskeller.
