The Texas State Capitol was designed by architect Elijah E. Myers, architect of the Michigan and Colorado Capitols.
He won a nationwide design competition for the project in 1881.
Contractors were offered an interesting trade: three million acres in the Texas Panhandle in exchange for constructing the Capitol.
That acreage would later become the famous XIT Ranch.
The Capitol was built with "Sunset Red" granite from what is now Marble Falls, Texas.
The state gave the stone to the contractor along with 1,000 convicts to quarry it.
In 1885,the granite cutter's union objected to the use of convict labor and boycotted the project.
The contractor responded by importing experienced stonecutters from Scotland.
In February 1888, the Goddess of Liberty statue was placed on the dome.
When finished, the Capitol building measured over 310 feet in height, had 392 rooms, 924 windows and 404 doors.