California State Capitol is a structure to see! Painted in white, and built in Neoclassical style, the building is one that makes a great subject for a photograph. Being able to go inside the stately building and tour a good part of it —I must say— was an absolute honor.
It was over a weekend in 2019 that we drove to the capital city of Sacramento and went on to see as much of the Capitol building as we were allowed to. It was a self-guided tour and we spent a couple of hours there walking around the building, taking in the architecture, seeing its grand interiors and taking a look at the many exhibits on display.
Let me run you through some sights I brought back. Believe me, you should go and see it all for yourself.
We started with a security screening. It is the California State Capitol after all. It’s where the governor sits and where the state legislature sits down to its proceedings.
It also functions as a museum as it has a lot of state history to impart.
We walked through some elegant hallways, and saw some charming old offices — the offices that the Governor, the Secretary of State and the Treasurer used for a good part of the 1900s — the rotunda, the dome, framed portraits of former governors of the state, and even the Senate Gallery.
The museum exhibits we saw at the Capitol included paperweights, stamps and things of the sort from the old days. There were also sculptures, blueprints of the old state capitol and some architectural elements of the building that were removed during the building’s renovations. And there were lots of informational texts about, and artefacts from the different counties of California. We even saw a statue of Ronald Regan at the center of a hall of murals (that, in another post).
California’s Capitol Building
This design credit for this beautiful building goes to Architect M F Butler. And the history of this building dates back to the late 1800s.
It was in 1860 that the capital of the state of California was moved to Sacramento. Later that year, plans for this classical revival-style building started to take shape. Although it was 1874 when the project was completed, the building was ready for legislative procedures in 1869.
Over the decades that followed the State Capitol has had restorations and additions done to it but it still remains a work of splendor.
Here in this post, you got a sneak peek at a part of those parts of the State Capitol that I got to see but I would highly recommend you to go see it for yourself and get a feel of it.
It was in the pre-pandemic days that we visited, and there have been changes in the visitation since then. As such, make sure to look up the visiting hours, the new rules for visitors and the guided tours that are available to you. Here’s the link to the official site of the Capitol.
You might also want to visit this post —
Washington State Capitol
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