State Capitol History

For many years, the leaders of the early Utah Territory and the young State of Utah operated out of borrowed rooms and buildings. The construction of a state capitol was a long-awaited project. Today’s Capitol Hill Complex is the result of more than a century of hard work, visionary design, and careful renovation.

In 1888, Salt Lake City donated 20 acres of land—then known as Arsenal Hill because of its previous use as a private munitions storage—to the Territory of Utah for the construction of a capitol building.

In 1909, years after Utah became the 45th state in the Union, the state legislature approved a seven-man Capitol Commission to oversee the design and construction of a state capitol. The budget was set at $2.5 million, but funding remained a problem until 1911 when the state received nearly $800,000 in inheritance taxes from the estate of Union Pacific Railroad president E. H. Harriman. The legislature responded with a $1 million bond, and the project was underway.

The Capitol Commission issued a design competition and eight architects from across Utah and the U.S. submitted their designs. Utah architect Richard K.A. Kletting won the state bidding process with his final building and landscape plans, and Capitol construction commenced in 1912. The building was completed in 1916, but financial difficulties prevented the full realization of Kletting’s original plans for the complex.

A massive renovation from 2004 to 2008 restored the Capitol's original beauty, completed key elements of Kletting’s initial design that had yet to be fulfilled, and added safeguards to protect those inside the People's House and the Capitol itself. This project added new artwork including the Rotunda statues, reverted changes made over the years to Kletting's original intentions, and installed a sophisticated base isolation system designed to protect the Capitol in the event of an earthquake. To explore the base isolation system, click here.

Today, the Capitol building houses all three branches of government, including two active legislative chambers, a ceremonial Supreme Court Chamber, and the working offices of top state officials. Among other buildings, the Capitol Hill Complex includes the East Senate Building, the Rebecca D. Lockhart West House Building, and the newly constructed Michael O. Leavitt North Capitol Building, which houses the Museum of Utah.

For more extensive information on the Capitol’s one-hundred-plus history, view the panels from our Commemorating a Century 2016 Centennial exhibit. (in pdf format)