Architecture
The curved exedra at the entrance to the Hall of Texas features 76-foot (23 m) tall limestone pillars sit in front of blue tiles designed to evoke the state's flower, the bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis). In the center, above the entrance is an 11-foot (3.4 m) bronze with gold leaf statue of the "Tejas Warrior": an archer ready to fire.
Inside the Hall of State is the Hall of Heroes, which features six bronze statues of James Fannin, Mirabeau B. Lamar, Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, Thomas Jefferson Rusk and William B. Travis. There are also bronze plaques that commemorate the Battle of the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto. Outside, a statue of Robert L. Thornton, benefactor of the State Fair of Texas and former Mayor of Dallas stands, overlooking the esplanade.
On the exterior frieze, the Hall of State commemorates 60 prominent historical figures in Texas' history:
- Edward Burleson
- Branch Tanner Archer
- Thomas Jefferson Rusk
- William B. Travis
- James Stephen Hogg
- Richard Ellis
- Mirabeau B. Lamar
- Ben Milam
- David G. Burnet
- John Coffee "Jack" Hays
- Erastus Smith
- Albert Sidney Johnston
- Stephen F. Austin
- James Bonham
- Davy Crockett
- Sam Houston
- J. Pinckney Henderson
- Oran M. Roberts
- Lorenzo de Zavala
- James Bowie
- John Reagan
- Anson Jones
- James Fannin
- Gail Borden
- William H. Wharton
- Peter Bell
- José Antonio Navarro
- Elisha M. Pease
- Samuel May Williams
- Ben McCulloch
- James W. Robinson
- Matthew Caldwell
- James Collinsworth
- John Hemphill
- George Childress
- Thomas Green
- R.T. Wheeler
- William B. Franklin
- Henry Wax Karnes
- Moseley Baker
- Walter P. Lane
- Patrick Churchill Jack
- Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
- Alonso Alvarez de Pineda
- Alonso de León
- Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca
- Hamilton Prieleaux Bee
- William Read Scurry
- Memucan Hunt Jr
- Frank Johnson
- Samuel Price Carson
- Sidney Sherman
- Abner Smith Lipscomb
- George Washington Hockley
- Henry Weidner Baylor
- Robert McAlpin Williamson
- Menefee (either William Menefee or John Menefee)
- Thomas Jefferson Chambers
- Isaac Van Zandt
- Thomas S. Lubbock
Read more about this topic: Hall Of State
Famous quotes containing the word architecture:
“It seems a fantastic paradox, but it is nevertheless a most important truth, that no architecture can be truly noble which is not imperfect.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)
“The two elements the traveler first captures in the big city are extrahuman architecture and furious rhythm. Geometry and anguish. At first glance, the rhythm may be confused with gaiety, but when you look more closely at the mechanism of social life and the painful slavery of both men and machines, you see that it is nothing but a kind of typical, empty anguish that makes even crime and gangs forgivable means of escape.”
—Federico García Lorca (1898–1936)
“They can do without architecture who have no olives nor wines in the cellar.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)