by Yay us, another state capitol building checked off in our quest to visit them all! This time we visited the Minnesota State Capitol in Saint Paul.
The Minnesota State Capitol building is their third building, this one completed in the Beaux-Arts style in 1905. It cost $4.5 million, and it was such a smash hit that West Virginia and Arkansas asked architect Cass Gilbert to design their capitol buildings, too.
Like all the capitol buildings we’ve seen so far, its most notable feature is its dome, which rises 220 feet. It is the “second largest self-supported marble dome in the world, behind Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, on which Gilbert based his design.”
In front of the dome, atop the main entrance on the south side is Progress of the State (commonly called the Quadriga), which features a male charioteer on a four-horse chariot guided by two maidens, designed by Daniel Chester French (who also designed the dome statue we’d just seen in Wisconsin’s state capitol building and the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial) and Edward Clark Potter. It’s gilded in 23 karat gold leaf, which needs to be reapplied every 20 years or so. The last restoration in 1994 cost more than $600,000.
So how does this one compare to all the other state capitol buildings? You’ll need to check our list for its official ranking!
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