IDAHO'S CAPITOL OF LIGHT

BY ANNA WEBB

Every so often a choir performs in the Idaho statehouse during the legislative session.

Voices reflect around the marble, echoing throughout the 208 feet from the first floor through the rotunda to the starry eye of the capitol building’s massive dome. All of that stone lends a haunting effect to the vocals, and for a few short minutes, the hundreds of lawmakers, officials and aides pause their chatter and bustle and political theater to soak it in.

But the Idaho statehouse doesn’t need choirs to show off. The building was designed by two Boise historical luminaries, architects John Tourtellotte and his partner, Charles Hummell, and features grey marble from Alaska, red marble from Georgia, green marble from Vermont, black marble from Italy, and of course, native sandstone removed from the nearby quarry at Table Rock by inmate work crews from the Idaho Penitentiary.

Dan Everhart, outreach historian in the State Historic Preservation Office, describes the architecture as Classical Revival. The style, reminiscent of Greek temples, is common in civic structures across the U.S. because of its sense of gravitas. Classical Revival hallmarks include symmetry, columns, pediments (the triangular element above the front entrance), and repetition of design elements like windows and doors.

The colors in the marble compass on the garden-level floor tell a story of Idaho’s bountiful resources: the gray marble matches the Sawtooth Mountains; the green is for sagebrush from the plains; the red is the color of sockeye salmon. Photos by Karen Day.

But for all the grandeur— including a dome topped with a gilded eagle that reaches 208 feet into the sky—Idaho’s State Capitol is notably warm and welcoming. Its sweeping stairs draw visitors in. Natural light fills the building’s interior spaces thanks to the architects’ use of skylights and reflective interior surfaces. These qualities were always part of Tourtellotte’s plan.

He intended the capitol to be a physical manifestation of good and moral government and adopted the term “Capitol of Light” to describe the concept.

“The great white light of conscience must be allowed to shine,” Tourtellotte said, “and by its interior illumination make clear the path of duty.”

That embrace of light makes Idaho’s capitol unique, said Everhart. It differs from capitol buildings in other states, including Texas and Indiana, built just a couple decades earlier when designers were still in the thrall of the Victorian era and the ornate décor that came with it.

“Tourtellotte cut all of that out,” said Everhart.

When Tourtellotte used color, he used it sparingly, and to make a point. The sky-blue ceiling in the rotunda is one example. It includes 13 gold stars representing the original colonies, and 43 smaller stars representing Idaho as the 43rd state in the union.

The capitol took shape in two phases. Crews built the dome and central section between 1905 and 1912. They built the wings on the east and west sides in 1920. A massive expansion and rehabilitation between 2007 and 2009 added subterranean wings beneath the east and west lawns.

The project restored some of the statehouse’s 1920s-era design elements, including light fixtures and metal work. It reopened spaces like the barrel-vaulted Statuary Hall that had been closed to the public for decades. The project left other elements intact, including the massive safe in the treasurer’s office, the 12 white lion heads that decorate the Senate Caucus room, and window casements made from century-old Honduran wood.

The end result is a capitol that is austere, elegant, and utterly western in its sensibilities—a temple for the sagebrush steppe.

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