Indianapolis, the capital of Indiana

Vincennes and Corydon

Indiana’s government began on the Wabash River at Vincennes, an old French town that became the capital of the new Indiana Territory in 1800. The small building where the territorial legislature met still stands. In 1813 the territorial capital moved east to Corydon, closer to the growing settlements along the Ohio River.

Corydon was where Indiana became a state. Delegates met there in June 1816 to write the first constitution, and Corydon served as the state capital from statehood until 1825. Its limestone capitol, finished in 1816, later became the Harrison County Courthouse and served that purpose until 1929. Today it is the Corydon Capitol State Historic Site.

A city planned from scratch

As settlement pushed north, Corydon, near the southern border, was far from most Hoosiers. Indiana decided to build a capital near the middle of the state. On June 7, 1820, a legislative commission picked a site in the forest where Fall Creek flows into the White River. In January 1821 the General Assembly confirmed the choice and adopted the name Indianapolis, adding polis, the Greek word for city, to the state’s name. Surveyors laid out a grid of streets around a central circle.

A law of January 1824 made Indianapolis the capital effective January 1, 1825. The state’s records and treasury were hauled north from Corydon, and the General Assembly first met in Indianapolis on January 10, 1825, in the new Marion County Courthouse.

The Statehouse

The state government has occupied its present site in downtown Indianapolis since 1835, when a first statehouse was built there. By the 1870s it was too small and in poor condition, and the state held a design competition for a new one. The winner was Edwin May, an Indianapolis architect. After May died in 1880, his draftsman Adolph Scherrer finished the work. A Detroit architect sued in 1879, claiming that the winning design borrowed from his plans, but a federal appeals court dismissed the case for lack of evidence.

The Indiana Statehouse is Renaissance Revival in style, laid out as a cross with a domed rotunda at the center and built of Indiana limestone, with design ideas taken from the US Capitol. The General Assembly held its first session in the unfinished building on January 6, 1887, and the commissioners closed the project’s accounts on October 2, 1888. Inside are a stained-glass dome, marble floors and staircases, and multistory atriums. The building was extensively renovated in 1988.

It still holds all three branches of government: the governor and other executive offices, both chambers of the General Assembly, and the Indiana Supreme Court.

Indianapolis today

Indianapolis had about 901,000 residents in 2025, by far the largest city in Indiana and one of the largest state capitals in the country, after Phoenix, Austin and Columbus. Fort Wayne, the second-largest city, has about 275,000.

Visiting

The Statehouse Tour Office runs guided public and school tours. See the Indiana Department of Administration’s visitor page for details.