Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah

Fillmore, the central capital

Utah’s territorial legislature first met in Salt Lake City in September 1851. That October it chose the Pauvan Valley in central Utah, at what became Fillmore, as the capital, because of its central location. A grand statehouse was planned, but only one wing was ever finished, and the legislature held just one complete session there, in 1855 and 1856. Short of housing and federal funds, lawmakers drifted back north.

Back to Salt Lake City

In December 1856 a joint resolution of the territorial legislature made Salt Lake City the capital. When Utah became a state in 1896, its constitution fixed the seat of government there. For decades, though, the Legislature had no permanent home and met in a series of rented and city buildings.

The Capitol

Ground was broken for the present Capitol on December 26, 1912, and the cornerstone was laid on April 4, 1914. Designed by Richard K. A. Kletting in the Corinthian style, the building measures 404 by 240 feet and rises 285 feet to the top of the dome. Its exterior walls and columns are gray granite from Little Cottonwood Canyon. It cost about $2.74 million, part of it paid with about $798,546 in inheritance tax on the estate of the railroad magnate E. H. Harriman, received in 1911. It opened in 1916.

Inside, a three-ton chandelier hangs from the rotunda dome on a 95-foot chain, and the beehive in the state seal set into the first floor is cut from honeycomb calcite, the state stone. The Capitol stands on about 37 acres of public parkland.

Visiting

The Capitol offers tours; see its tour page for times.