Idaho State Capitol
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The Idaho State Capitol is the state capitol building of the U.S. state of Idaho. Housing the Idaho Legislature, it is located in the state capital of Boise. The main building was completed by 1913. It is the only state capitol to be heated by a geothermal well.
The height of the capitol building is 208 feet (63 m) tall, coinciding with the state's area code (208), it being 208 feet tall has no signicance to the area code; being that phones were not widely used at the time it was constructed.
Locally, the building is referred to as
"The Statehouse."
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[edit] Previous building
The original brick Capitol building was built in 1886, located between Sixth and Seventh, and Jefferson and State streets. Four years later, Idaho achieved statehood and the new state's government soon outgrew the Capitol, and in 1905 a new building was commissioned.
[edit] Current building
Local sandstone from east Boise's Table Rock quarry was used, as well as convict labor. The sandstone and marble Capitol was completed in 1920 at a cost of over $2 million. The design of the building was modelled after the United States Capitol in Washington, DC.
[edit] Details of the Capitol building
There are underground tunnels beneath the capitol mall connecting the Capitol Building to the Supreme Court building and other government buildings. Used daily, these tunnels are accessible only to government employees and can be used as a bomb shelter to protect the Governor and other public servants. The Capitol Building has a special parking stall next to the main entrance stairway reserved for the governor's personal car. The governor's car uses the Idaho license plate number 1.
The large bell directly in front of the Capitol Building is a scale replica of the Liberty Bell (uncracked). Pedestrians can ring the bell. The elevator on the east side of the rotunda could once be stopped between floors by forcing the doors open to view the walls of this elevator shaft that have been signed by hundreds of House and Senate pages, as well as elected representatives. The only meeting rooms in the building where the public is never welcome are the caucus chambers and the Senators' and Representatives' lounges.
Twenty portraits of Idaho territorial and state Governors painted by artist Herbert A. Collins in 1911 are on display.
The state capitol was designed by Boise architects John E. Tourtellotte And Charles F. Hummel, partners who designed many church and educational buildings in Boise.[1]
The pillers in the main lobby area are not made of marble as many believe, they were created by artists in place behind sheets in secret as to not show the technique on how it was done to achieve the look of actual marble.
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[edit] External links
Coordinates: 43°37′04″N 116°11′59″W / 43.617698°N 116.199613°W
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