Colorado State Capitol

The Colorado State Capitol Building is located at 200 East Colfax Avenue, Denver, Colorado, United States. It houses the Colorado General Assembly as well as the offices of Governor of Colorado and Lieutenant Governor.

The building is designed to be reminiscent of the United States Capitol. It was designed by Elijah E. Myers and constructed from Colorado white granite in the 1890s. It opened for use in November 1894. The distinctive gold dome is made of real gold leaf. It was first added in 1908 to commemorate the Colorado Gold Rush. It is located in Denver's Civic Center. It was included in the Civic Center Historic District, which was registered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. In 2012, it was added to the Denver Civic Center National Historic Landmark District.

The Colorado State Historical Fund funded a major safety project that was initiated in 2001 and completed by 2009. Fentress Architects designed the project and added safety features such as enclosed stair towers that blend in with its original architecture. Many of Denver's Architectural tours feature the Colorado Capitol Building.

The historic building is located slightly higher than downtown Denver and serves as the Capitol Hill district's beginning. The main entrance hall can be accessed from the dome's top 180 feet (55m) above the ground. This is about the height of an 18-story building. The official elevation of Denver can be found outside the west entrance of the building. The fifteenth step has the words "One mile above sea level" engraved on it. At 5,280 feet (1.609 m), you can see the sun setting behind the Rocky Mountains from this step. In 1969, Colorado State University students resurveyed the elevation and set a second mile-high marker in the 18th step. Modern measurement methods allowed for a more precise measurement. The 13th step was resurveyed in 1969 and found to be one mile (1.6 km) tall. A third marker was also installed.

Granite from the Aberdeen Quarry, near Gunnison in Colorado was used to construct the superstructure of the building. The granite used for the building was approximately 280,000 cubic feet (7.900 m3) or 24,000 tonnes. This gray granite is the exterior of the building. The building's interior uses a lot of Colorado Rose Onyx, an uncommon rose marble that was mined from a quarry near Beulah in Colorado. The entire known supply was used for the construction. White Yule Marble from Colorado's quarries was used for the floors throughout the capitol. There are many designs in the marble, including one that resembles George Washington and another that resembles Molly Brown.

Many windows feature stained glass that depict historical events or people. Lawrence Williams painted portraits of all presidents in the halls, including George Washington and George W. Bush. Sarah A. Boardman, a painter, took over from Williams and has since painted Barack Obama and Donald Trump. William Douglas Richardson, a W. D. Richardson Construction Company president, was one of the contractors who built the Colorado State Capitol Building. Richardson was involved in many major building contracts across the United States and was connected to the John Whitfield Bunn and Jacob Bunn networks of corporations.