The Kansas State Capitol, known also as the Kansas Statehouse, is the building housing the executive and legislative branches of government for the U.S. state of Kansas. It is located in the city of Topeka which has served as the capital of Kansas since it became a state in 1861. This is only the second building to serve as the Kansas Capitol.
A large mural in the east wing, painted by Kansan John Steuart Curry, is centered on an image of abolitionist John Brown. This is believed to be the only instance of a person convicted of treason being featured in a state capitol.
The dome, at 304 ft (93 m), is taller than the 288 ft (88 m) United States Capitol dome although its diameter (50 ft (15 m)) is approximately half the national capitol (96 ft (29 m)). It is one of the few capitols in the United States that continues to offer tours that go to the top of the dome. The dome is, however, temporarily closed to visitors until 2012, as the Statehouse is undergoing extensive renovations. Visitors enter the dome by climbing 296 steps leading from the fifth floor to the top.
Read more about Kansas State Capitol: History, In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words kansas, state and/or capitol:
“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.... Now I know we’re not in Kansas.”
—Noel Langley (1898–1981)
“He was discontented and wasted his life into the bargain; and yet he rated it as a gain in coming to America, that here you could get tea, and coffee, and meat every day. But the only true America is that country where you are at liberty to pursue such a mode of life as may enable you to do without these, and where the state does not endeavor to compel you to sustain slavery and war and other superfluous expenses which directly or indirectly result from the use of such things.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A woman with her two children was captured on the steps of the capitol building, whither she had fled for protection, and this, too, while the stars and stripes floated over it.”
—Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815–1884)