History

The Idaho State Capitol in Boise is the home of the government of the U.S. state of Idaho. Although Lewiston briefly served as Idaho's capital city from the formation of the old federal Idaho Territory in 1863, the territorial legislature moved it to Boise on December 24, 1864. It continued as such following the admission of the Territory as the 43rd state in the federal Union on July 3, 1890, the day before Independence Day, the Fourth of July, when a 43rd white star was added officially to the constellation in the upper corner blue field (canton) of the red and white striped American Flag ("Old Glory" / "the Stars and Stripes").[2]

Construction of the first portion of the new state capitol building began in the summer of 1905, fifteen years after 43rd statehood, and the designing architects were John E. Tourtellotte (1869-1939), and Charles Hummel, in their architectural firm / partnership of Tourtellotte & Hummel (now named Hummel Architects). Tourtellotte was a Connecticut native whose career began in Massachusetts and continued when he moved west to Boise. Hummel was a German American immigrant who partnered with Tourtellotte in 1901. The final cost of the building was just over $2 million dollars; it was completed fifteen years later in 1920. The architects used varied materials to construct the building and their design was inspired by Classical style of architecture of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece for examples.[3] Its sandstone exterior is dug and cut from the state-owned quarry at nearby Table Rock in Ada County, Idaho.