A Bastion of Learning

Old State Capitol Building, Olympia

The Old Capitol started life as a courthouse in 1892 and became the official Capitol in 1906 when the county commissioners decided it was too expensive. Following construction of the current Capitol in the 1920s, it became a state office building and is now home to Washington's Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
I particularly wanted to "blog" this because it bears some striking similarities to the museum and former city hall recently featured on WichitaKsDailyPhoto. A little googling revealed that both buildings share a style known as Richardson Romanesque, which was named for the architect Henry Hobson Richardson. These two buildings each seem to have had other architects, but were completed at almost exactly the same time.

Like the Wichita building, the Old Capitol once had a clock tower, but it was destroyed by a fire in 1928 and never replaced. The state undertook a considerable renovation in 1983 and the interior is lovely.