The State Capitol Photographs Page

(FYI: Capital versus Capitol - The city versus the building!)

Click on any photo to follow a link to the Wikipedia entry and more information about the capitol.

We began this project in early 1971 during a visit to the Texas State Capitol while we were living in Temple Texas as Tom finished his military career at Fort Hood.  Of course, we didn't realize that we were starting a project to photograph every state Capitol at the time.  But that first tour of a Capitol building had been very interesting and opportunities presented themselves to collect additional pictures over the years.  We finally counted up our collection just before Tom retired and discovered that we had about half of the buildings.  Why not capture them all?

Apparently, we are not the first people to set out on this quest.  As we reached the New Jersey Capitol just a few minutes before closing time one afternoon in the summer of 2013, the attendant on duty asked, "are you visiting all of the Capitols?"  "Yes, we are," I replied.  "How many do you have so far?"  "This will make 43," I said.  She stayed a little late and gave us a private tour. 

I started blogging in February of 2008.  Capitol visits since then usually have a blog post attached at the bottom of the picture.  The more recent ones have a full post devoted to the building. The objective for this webpage was to produce a fast-loading page that shows all of the buildings, so the pictures here don't have a great deal of detail.  A second version will become available soon with better quality images.

 I quickly learned that photographing fifty outdoor scenes is no easy task and now have greatly increased respect for the professionals who do this sort of thing for a living.  Arriving in a capital city at dusk in the midst of a rainy week is a great disappointment.  Some of these pictures represent just a brief opportunity on an otherwise tightly scheduled day.  To anyone contemplating a similar project, I offer encouragement.  But allow lots of slack in your schedule and plan to enjoy several hours on the inside of each building.  They are all interesting and most offer some marvelous education in American history. 

 (50/50 Complete! last update - April, 2022)

The State of Alabama

Capital: Montgomery

The State of Alaska