Congress Avenue & Music Walk

Welcome to the Texas State Capitol, home of the Texas Legislature and the governor's office. Architect Elijah E. Myers designed it in 1881, and it was built from 1882 to 1888 in the Italian Renaissance Revival style. At just over 302 feet, it's the sixth-tallest state capitol and taller than the U.S.

Capitol in Washington. It's the fourth capitol building in Austin. The second, built of limestone on this same site, burned in 1881. The way Texas paid for this one is remarkable.

The builders, known as the Capitol Syndicate, were paid with more than three million acres of public land in the Texas Panhandle, one of the largest barter deals in recorded history. That land became the XIT Ranch, once the largest cattle ranch in the world. The plan was to use local limestone, but its iron content made it streak with rust. So the owners of Granite Mountain near Marble Falls donated the sunset red, or pink, granite you see instead.

This is the Texas Governor's Mansion, designed by the prominent architect Abner Cook and built in the Greek Revival style. It was completed in 1856, and every Texas governor has lived here since. That makes it the oldest continuously inhabited house in Texas, and the fourth-oldest governor's mansion in the country continuously occupied by a chief executive. It sits in the middle of its block, surrounded by trees and gardens.

The original house had 11 rooms but no bathrooms. A 1914 remodel expanded it to 25 rooms and seven bathrooms. In 1962 it became the first designated Texas historic landmark, and in 1974 a National Historic Landmark. Then came a close call.

On June 8, 2008, in the middle of a major renovation, a four-alarm fire caused by a Molotov cocktail badly damaged the 152-year-old building, and investigators said an arsonist had targeted it. Governor Rick Perry and his wife had moved out for the renovation and were in Europe at the time.