Self-Guided Student Tour of the Colorado State Capitol

Colorado State Capitol Visitor Services

Colorado Legislative Council

029 State Capitol Building

Denver, Colorado 80203

(303) 866-2604

www.colorado.gov/capitoltour

CLOSING

Thank you for visiting the Colorado State Capitol.

Stairways will take you back to the first floor. You

may also use the small elevators located on the east

side of the floor. Public restrooms are located in the

basement near the cafeteria.

For more information about the Colorado State

Capitol and to schedule a tour, please visit

www.colorado.gov/capitol

Self-Guided

Student Tour of the

Colorado State Capitol

Capitol Etiquette

Groups should consist of no more than 30 guests.

Please keep noise level down (no louder than a whisper).

NO RUNNING

Refrain from climbing on, throwing things, or yelling over the brass rails.

Walk in stairways following in a single-file row on one side only.

Observe posted rules upon entry into both the House and Senate Galleries.

Do not touch the artwork.

This pamphlet was designed to help teachers,

chaperones, and other adults guide their stu-

dents through the Colorado State Capitol. It is

our intent to have a tour guide for each school

group as we feel personal interaction is the best

way to learn. However, we realize there are

times this will not be possible.

This pamphlet was designed to help teachers

and chaperones in the event a Capitol guide is

unavailable. This can be read aloud to your stu-

dents as you tour the building.

COLORADO FUN FACTS (continued)

 The world’s largest flat-top mountain is the Grand

Mesa in western Colorado.

 The highest paved road in North America is the sce-

nic drive to Mount Evans, which reaches 14,258 feet

or over 4,345 meters.

 Colorado is often ranked as the best place for out-

door activities. Colorado has about 30 ski resorts,

over 40 state parks, four national parks (there are 58

in the entire U.S.), and over 300 sunny days a year.

 Colorado’s southwest corner is the only place in

America where the corners of four states meet: New

Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Colorado.

 The Buckhorn Exchange, located on 100 Osage St.,

is Colorado’s oldest continuously operating restau-

rant and bar. It opened in 1893 and holds Denver

Liquor License Number One.

 Colfax Avenue, located to the north side of the Capi-

tol, is the world’s longest continuous street in Ameri-

ca. It is 26.5 miles long and stretches from Golden

through Aurora.

 Leadville, Colorado, is the highest incorporated city

in the United States at 10, 430 feet.

 The world’s first rodeo was held in Deer Trail, Colo-

rado, on July 4th, 1869.

 Colorado has the highest mean altitude of any state.

COLORADO FUN FACTS

 Even though Denver is 5,280 feet and is known as

the “Mile High City,” we are actually only the third

highest U.S. capitol in elevation, behind Santa Fe

New Mexico at 7,000 ft. and Cheyenne, Wyoming at

6,097.

 Denver has America’s largest park system with 205

city parks and 20,000 acres of mountain park areas.

In the city proper, by design, no resident lives more

than six blocks from green space.

 Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado

has 600 Native American cliff dwellings, which are

structures built within caves and under outcroppings

in cliffs.

These structures were built a thousand years ago.

Mesa Verde was the first place in the United States to

become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

These sites are considered to have outstanding uni-

versal value, and include locations such as the Egyp-

tian Pyramids, England’s Stonehenge, Australia’s

Great Barrier Reef, and China’s Great Wall, among

others.

Tour

Guide

Desk

Office of State Planning

and Budgeting

Governor’s

Legal

Counsel/

Policy and

Initiatives

Room 120

Elevator Elevator

Governor’s Press/Communications

Citizen’s Advocate Office

Room

127

LIEUTENANT

GOVERNOR’S

OFFICE

Room 130

Room 142

TREASURER’S

Room 140

Room 136

GOVERNOR’S OFFICE

ROTUNDA

Staircase

GRANT STREET

COLFAX

STREET

LINCOLN

State Patrol

Room

100

Room

111

STATE CAPITOL

FIRST FLOOR

Room

115

W E

Stairs

SELF-GUIDED TOUR

View of

Basement

(tunnels)

Visitor Services

Information

Desk

Thank you for visiting the Colorado State Capitol. This

is where our legislature makes the laws that affect eve-

ryone in Colorado. The Governor’s office, the Lieuten-

ant Governor’s office, and the State Treasurer’s office

are in this building. They are all responsible for seeing

that the laws are carried out (executed).

STATION 1 – Governor’s Office in South Lobby

Executive Chamber

The entire first floor is used by the Executive branch of

the state government and is the area of the Capitol that

has always been used for Colorado’s Governors.

 On the west side of this atrium is the Governor’s Of-

fice called the Executive Chamber.

(Gather around brass rail in front of Governor’s office)

Tunnels

One of the most unique features of our building is the

underground tunnel system.

 It was used in the old days to bring coal carts into the

Capitol to be used in furnaces to heat the building.

 We consumed an estimated one-ton of coal per hour!

 Today the building is heated with a geothermal heat-

ing system, so the furnaces and the coal cars are no

longer used.

 These tunnels, while currently locked and used for

storage, still exist beneath our basement floor.

STATION 2- Seated on the Floor Facing Wainscoting

 Before the Colorado (or Pikes Peak) Gold Rush of

1859, Colorado was populated by Native American

Indian groups who lived nomadically as seasonal

hunters.

CAPITOL FUN FACTS

 The word “capitol” (the building) sounds like

“capital” (the main city), but they are two different

words. Do you remember the shape of the dome

when you looked up? It’s a circle that looks like the

letter “o.” That should remind you that the word

“capitol” (the building) is spelled with an “o.”

 America’s first women lawmakers worked in the

Colorado House of Representatives in 1895. There

were three of them!

 Children as young as four have testified before a

committee in the Colorado State Capitol! That’s

when citizens tell the lawmakers what they think

about ideas for new laws.

 Capitol architect E.E. Myers also designed the state

capitols in Michigan and Texas

 The light fixtures you see throughout the building are

original. Before the 1930s, when they were convert-

ed to electric, they were gas lit.

STATION 10 Continued - Presidential Gallery, 3rd Floor

Rotunda

 LAWRENCE WILLIAMS (1913—2003), a Massachu-

setts portrait artist, painted each of the presidential

portraits from George Washington through to George

W. Bush.

 In 1979, the portraits were purchased by an Arizona

couple and then donated, in 1982, to the Capitol.

 Williams also painted President Ronald Reagan and

George H. W. Bush though these were not part of the

original gift bestowed to the Capitol. Instead, these

two portraits were purchased with state funds then

added to the Presidential Collection.

 Williams painted a Clinton portrait, but Mr. Williams

donated it to the White House whose staff then do-

nated it to the Clinton Library. The Library has pro-

vided the Capitol with a giclée replica of the original.

 To maintain a complete set of Presidents, funds were

raised privately to commission the President Obama

portrait, which was painted by Colorado artist, SA-

RAH BOARDMAN and added to the collection in

2011.

STATION 11 – Entrance to the Dome and Mr.

Brown’s Attic

Our Capitol museum is located between the third floor

and the dome and houses artifacts, photographs, draw-

ings, and exhibits for visitors of all ages to enjoy!

The Dome

The dome is included on public historical tours—please

visit the Visitor Services Information Desk on the 1st or

3rd floor for more information.

 The 1859 Gold Rush brought an additional 60,000+

people to the Denver area in a very short period of

time. While the gold wasn’t as plentiful as hoped,

many people remained in the area to live.

 With the influx of so many people, Colorado needed

the services a state government provides: police,

schools, roads, and clean water.

 Colorado became a territory in 1861, and gained

Statehood in 1876, as the 38

state in the Union.

 We are called the Centennial State because we be-

came a state exactly 100 years after the Declaration

of Independence was signed by our United States’

founding fathers.

 Elijah E. Myers (1832-1909) was the original architect

of the Capitol. Work began on the building in 1886,

ten years after statehood.

 Over two acres of Yule marble were used in the cap-

itol flooring, most of it quarried in Marble, Colorado.

 Yule marble is the white marble used in the Federal

and State buildings throughout the nation.

 The Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C is made

from this marble, as is the Tomb of the Unknown

Soldier.

 The distinctive red veined wainscoting is known lo-

cally as Beulah Rose Onyx and the Capitol is one of

only 3 places in the world where you can see it! (A

fireplace in the Governor’s Residence and at a court-

house in Pueblo are the other locations.)

It is from Beulah, Colorado, near the town of Pueblo,

to our south.

 Due to the unique veining in the stone, characters

and creatures can often be spotted lurking in the

walls. Can you find George Washington? Perhaps a

turkey?

 Capitol builders used entire known world supply of

rose onyx in our building, about two miles of this

stone.

 This building used 12 million bricks, and 280,000

cubic feet of granite. It weighs an estimated 300 mil-

lion pounds, about the same as 30,000 African ele-

phants!

 At the time of the building’s completion, we had

spent $60,000 on landscaping and $100,000 on per-

manent furnishings. The total construction costs, af-

ter all the bills were paid, came to $2,715,362.

 The construction was budgeted to cost slightly less

than one million dollars and the project was estimat-

ed to take 4 years to complete. (It took about fif-

teen!)

STATION 3 – Women’s Gold Wall Hanging

This hand-stitched wall hanging tells the story of promi-

nent Colorado women in the first 100 years of statehood

and was a gift for our state’s centennial in 1976.

 More than 3,500 people put at least one stitch in the

tapestry.

 Each contributor signed the book located in the case

beneath the tapestry.

 The words embroidered around the edge of the tapes-

try are the lyrics to America the Beautiful, written

over 100 years ago by KATHARINE LEE BATES

(1859-1929).

The remarkable scenery of Pikes Peak Mountain near

Colorado Springs inspired her to write these words.

 The Native American woman on the upper left is

CHIPETA (1843/4–1924) , who, with her husband, Ute

THIRD FLOOR

STATION 9 – HENRY C. BROWN PORTRAIT

The Capitol's oldest and largest oil painting hangs on the

west wall outside the Senate Gallery.

 In 1864, with the intent of selling off lots for houses,

HENRY CORDES BROWN (1820–1906) homestead-

ed 160 acres of land in what is now known as Capitol

Hill.

He donated 10-acres of his property to the state of

Colorado for the express purpose of constructing the

Capitol. As a result of his offering, many of Colora-

do’s wealthy residents purchased land around the do-

nated property to build their mansions.

 Brown also built the elegant and world-renowned

Brown Palace Hotel at 321 17th Street, a few blocks

away.

 To honor Henry C. Brown, we created a capitol mu-

seum and named it Mr. Brown’s Attic.

It is located between the third floor and the dome.

Its main entrance is on the southwest side of the third

floor. We hope you will visit during your tour!

STATION 10 – Third Floor Rotunda

The 16 round stained glass portraits above are called

Colorado’s Circle of Fame.

 Each portrait represents a person important in our

history.

For example, GENERAL JAMES W. DENVER

(1817-1892) was the Territorial Governor of Kansas for

whom the city of Denver is named.

Colorado’s state flower, the White and Lavender col-

umbine frames each portrait.

ROTUNDA

House Offices

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

GALLERY

Media Room

Senate Offices

Senate Services

Senate Majority

Senate

Hearing

Rooms

Elevator Elevator

Press

Room

House

Offices

Room

357

Room

356

Room

354

Room

353

Room

352

Room

307

Room

305

Room

301

Room

300

Room

302

Room

314

Room

346

Room

342

Room

341

Room 339

Room

337

Room 338

Room 316

Room

317

Room

318

Room

320

Room 322

Room 323

Room 326

Room 329

Room 333

Room 332

Stairs

Room

348

GRANT STREET (East Side)

COLFAX (North Side)

STREET (South Side)

LINCOLN (West Side)

STATE CAPITOL

THIRD FLOOR

SELF-GUIDED TOUR

Entrance to Attic/Dome

Chief Ouray, attempted to make and keep peace be-

tween the Ute people and the new settlers.

 The woman in the blue hat and dress standing next to

the theatre is MARY ELITCH LONG (1856 – 1936),

founder of Elitch Gardens, originally located in

Northwest Denver.

Elitch’s, as it was known locally, opened in 1890 and

housed the first zoo west of Chicago, as well as a bo-

tanic gardens, and a summer stock theater.

Today Elitch’s has been relocated into the down town

area and is a popular amusement park.

 SILVER HEELS (1860s?) is the woman in the pretty

dark red dress standing on the rock. Legend has it

that she was a dance hall girl who lived in the mining

town of Buckskin Joe in the 1860s.

When smallpox overtook the town, Silver Heels was

one of the few people who stayed to help those who

became ill.

Mt. Silverheels, located between Breckenridge and

Fairplay, is named for her.

 ELIZABETH EYRE PELLET (1887-1976) is on the

top left, walking on the slat path.

Ms. Eyre was a NY actress on Broadway and in si-

lent movies.

She married Robert Pellet and moved to Colorado

where she became the first female House of Repre-

sentative’s Minority Leader (1955-56).

Pellet’s terms of service to our state lasted off and on

for better than two decades (1940-1942, 1948-1964)

during which she was instrumental in saving the Rio

Grande southern railroad, and obtaining better roads

for her district.

(Please take a brochure for more information on the Tapestry)

STATION 4 - ROTUNDA at the Bottom of the

GRAND STAIRCASE

A rotunda is a circular room that usually has a dome.

Look up toward the inner DOME

 From the first floor of the rotunda to the top of the

dome on the inside is 180 feet, about 18 stories.

 The decorative painted star is about two feet wide.

 You can’t see it from inside the building, but our

dome is covered in Colorado gold.

 When the Capitol was first completed the dome was

covered in copper, which is not a material native to

our state. Coloradoans quickly sought to change the

dome’s covering to reflect our mining heritage with a

mineral resource more specific to Colorado.

 In 1908, local gold miners gave us about 200 ounces

(about 12.5 pounds or 5.5 kilograms) of Colorado

gold to gild our dome.

 The most recent restoration, completed in 2014, used

only 64.5 ounces of Colorado-mined gold.

 Because of our weather the gold is replaced about

every thirty years or so.

 Around the walls of this rotunda is a collection of

murals painted by ALLEN TUPPER TRUE (1881-

1955) in 1940.

 True was a Colorado-born artist whose work featured

the American West. He is well-known for the iconic

image of a cowboy on the Wyoming state license

plate.

 If you choose to visit the gallery, please observe all

posted rules that you will read prior to entering the

gallery.

STATION 8 – Senate Chambers

This is the other room where laws are made.

 As in the House, the Senate lobby may not be availa-

ble for a tour during session, but you can view the

Chamber from the third-floor gallery level, marked

as 8A on the map.

Again, please adhere to posted rules here too.

 Colorado has 35 Senators - each represents about

144,000 people.

 Lawmakers come to work in the second week of Jan-

uary and work on making laws for 120 days, the

length of our Legislative Session, which usually ends

in May.

 Colorado voters elect the people who work in the

House of Representatives and in the Senate.

 Colorado citizens pay legislative salaries through

taxes.

Members of the House and Senate make the same

salary, about $33,000 a year.

 For a new idea to become a law, it must be approved

by a majority of the lawmakers in both the House

and the Senate.

 Colorado lawmakers come from all different parts of

the state: mountains, farming areas, and cities. Al-

most all of our lawmakers have other jobs in their

own home areas.

The Colorado Supreme Court is now housed in the Ralph

L. Carr Judicial Center, across the street from us on 14th

Ave between Broadway and Lincoln. The room you are

looking at is now used for public hearings and other meet-

ings.

The stained glass window on the south wall (behind you)

depicts the image of EMILY GRIFFITH (10 Feb 1868 to 18

Jun 1947 ).

 Ms. Griffith founded Denver’s Opportunity School in

1916, which was renamed for her in 1933.

 She envisioned a school that would serve all who

wished to learn, young and old.

 Today, over 1.6 million people have attended the Op-

portunity School

STATION 7 – House of Representatives Chambers

This is one of two rooms within the Capitol where laws

are made. This is the largest room in our Capitol.

 Colorado has 65 members of the House and each one

represents about 77,000 citizens.

Here in the House of Representatives, lawmakers vote

with the little buttons on their desks.

They push the red for “no” and a green for “yes.” The

white button calls staff for help.

 The House of Representative’s lobby may not be

available for a tour during session, but we welcome

you to view the House Chambers from the third-floor

gallery level, marked as 7A on the map. Here you

may see our legislators at work.

 Allen True understood the importance of natural

resources to our state and these murals depict the

value of what we consider to be one of the most

significant: water. Each mural illustrates,

throughout time, the contributions of water to Col-

orado’s growth.

 The words you read are a poem, Here is a Land

Where Life is Written in Water by Colorado poet

Thomas Hornsby Ferril

THROUGHOUT THE BUILDING

As you tour the building, there are many interesting

things to see.

 Have you noticed the door knobs? Each is de-

signed with our state seal. Our state seal appears

in many place throughout the building, including

the name tags of each person working here.

The seal was first approved by the General Assem-

bly in 1877. It contains classical Greco-Roman

motifs, such as the “eye of God,” and a heraldic

shield showing our magnificent Colorado Rocky

Mountains and tools used by the miners who first

came to our state during the Gold Rush.

 The shiny, yellowish metal seen throughout the in-

side of the Capitol on the banisters and railings is

brass, not gold.

 Brass is a manmade metal, made in a factory and it

does not cost nearly as much as gold. This brass

must be polished each week to maintain that beau-

tiful glimmer.

 The door handles are made of bronze.

SECOND FLOOR

STATION 6 – The Old Supreme Court Chamber

For 83 years, the most important court and judges in

Colorado used this room. Notice the grandeur of the

space.

 The chandelier weighs 2,000 pounds, or one ton, the

same as a classic model VW Beetle.

 In 1976, when the Colorado Supreme Court justices

moved to their then-new site, they wanted to take this

beautiful chandelier with them. Senator Hugh

Fowler threatened to chain himself to the chandelier

rather than let it be taken from the building!

The stained glass HERITAGE WINDOWS honor eth-

nic groups who have been important in forming our

state. Starting on the left -

1) the Spanish mapmakers and explorers who explored

Colorado over 250 years ago

2) the early Ute people who lived here hundreds of years

before gold was discovered in the Rockies

3) Ute peacemaker, Ouray, holding a peace pipe is shown

with Alexander Hunt, our 4th Territorial Governor

4) the first African-American businesswoman in Colora-

do, a former slave, Aunt Clara Brown

5) Early Chinese and Japanese community members, in-

cluding businessman Chin Lin Sou. They were mine

workers, started much of our agriculture, and built rail-

roads.

Staircase

House Minority

Office

Room

212

Room

206

Room

205

Room

201

Room 200

Room

202

Room

217

Legislative

Hearing Room

(Old Supreme

Court Chambers)

Room

222

Room

227

Room

229

House Offices

House Majority

Communications and Policy

House of

Representatives

Chambers

House

Leadership

Room

246

Senate Offices

Room

253

Senate

Chambers

Lift

Room

257

Senate

Leadership

Room

263

House

Offices

Senate

Offices

Room

274

Room

271

TDD

Elevator Elevator

Stairs

ROTUNDA

Room

256

Room

234

Room

223

Room

258

Room

259

Room

268

Room

269

Room

273

Room

272

GRANT STREET (East Side)

LINCOLN (West Side)

COLFAX (North Side)

STREET (South Side)

STATE CAPITOL

SECOND FLOOR

SELF-GUIDED TOUR