Minnesota State Capitol

The Minnesota State Capitol is located at 75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd in Saint Paul. It houses the Minnesota Senate, Minnesota House of Representatives, the Office of the Attorney General, the Office of the Governor and chamber for the Minnesota Supreme Court.

The building is set on a landscaped campus with various monuments to its sides and front.  If you can’t make it to view the building itself, you can take the Minnesota Historical Society’s Walking Tour of the Capitol and surrounding area.  If you do have a chance, walking tours are given from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays.

The building was designed by Cass Gilbert and modeled after Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome.  It is also inspired by the idea of domed capitols originating with the United States Capitol dome. The Capitol was built at a cost of $4.5 million and work began on the capitol in 1896. Construction was completed in 1905. It is the third building to serve this purpose: the first capitol was destroyed by fire in 1881, and the second was completed in 1883, but was considered to be too small almost immediately.