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:
“Since the Civil War its six states have produced fewer political ideas, as political ideas run in the Republic, than any average county in Kansas or Nebraska.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“A set of ideas, a point of view, a frame of reference is in space only an intersection, the state of affairs at some given moment in the consciousness of one man or many men, but in time it has evolving form, virtually organic extension. In time ideas can be thought of as sprouting, growing, maturing, bringing forth seed and dying like plants.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“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)