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The Texas State Capitol Visitors Center is a great place to start your visit to the Texas State Capitol in Austin.
Visiting
The Texas State Capitol Visitors Center is located on the southeast corner of the capitol grounds. It’s open Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm and contains a gift shop and Texas travel office.
Building
The Texas State Capitol Visitors Center is housed in the former General Land Office Building. It was completed in 1857 and is the oldest surviving state government office building in Austin. The building was designed by German architect Christoph Conrad Stremme (1807-1877) and functioned as the state’s land office building until 1917. Writer William Sidney Porter (1862-1910), better known as O. Henry, worked in the building from 1887 to 1891.
From 1919 to 1988, the General Land Office Building hosted museums run by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It was restored between 1989 and 1992, and reopened as the Texas State Capitol Visitors Center in 1994.
Capitol Construction
The Texas State Capitol Visitors Center contains a handful of exhibits, including information on the construction of the statehouse. On display are blueprints, construction materials, and even the original star held by the Goddess of Liberty statue from February 1888 to November 1985.
The original Goddess of Liberty once crowned the statehouse dome and weighed over 2,000 pounds. It was designed by Elijah E. Myers (1832-1909), the architect of the Texas State Capitol, and was made of zinc. The replacement Goddess, made of aluminum, was installed on June 14, 1986. The original is now at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum.
A Hero’s Reward: Land Grants of the Texas Revolution
Another exhibit covers land grants given to veterans of the Texas Revolution. It displays information on the diverse groups of people who came together to fight for the independence of Texas as well as brief stories about and clothing worn by figures of the revolution. There’s also an explanation of the land grant process.
Partial replicas of homes built by citizens who received land grants make up part of the exhibit. One is a log cabin and another is a more modern home for the era.
Civil War
Finally, an exhibit on display during my visit included artifacts and information about Texas during the Civil War. Two of the most interesting artifacts are a bible owned by Sam Houston Jr. (1843-1894) that stopped a bullet from killing him while fighting with Confederate forces at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862 as well as a medical kit.
A display about slavery in Texas included leg irons and other items related to slavery. A replica military camp showed how soldiers would have lived while they waited to go to battle.
