The State Capitol

photo by ladybugkt

History-

Located at 112 E. 11th St, the original building constructed in 1853, burned to the ground in a fire in 1881. Construction on the new capitol began in 1882. The Texas State Capitol was completed in 1888. It was the tallest building in Austin, and at the time was billed as the “Seventh largest building in the world.” The Capitol is 360,000-square-feet, it stands over 300 feet tall, reportedly contains 392 rooms, 18 vaults, 924 windows, 404 doors, 4,000 railroad cars of granite, 11,000 railroad cars of limestone and other materials, and cost $3,744,600 to build.

Ghosts-

Two suicides have taken place in the Capitol’s rotunda over the years. The first occurred in 1937 and the most recent in the mid-1980’s when a lunatic escaped from the nearby Austin State Hospital and jumped from the dome of the building before shocked onlookers could stop him. Since then, witnesses claim to have seen a mournful, confused specter wandering the rotunda.