The STATE CAPITOL, Court, State, and I2th Sts., stands
in its own park, adjoining Willson Park and seemingly a part of it.
In the two parks are more than four hundred varieties of trees. Near
the east entrance of the capitol is the CIRCUIT RIDER, a bronze eques-
trian statue of life size, commemorating the pioneer missionary, Rev.
Robert Booth. The sculptor was A. Phimister Proctor,
The present Oregon State Capitol replaces the one destroyed by fire
in 1935. Francis Kelly, associated with Trowbridge & Livingstone of
New York, is the architect. Oregon associates are Whitehouse and
Church. The building, modern in design, has a symmetrical facade that
is divided into three main sections and dominated by a cylindrical cen-
tral dome. The main entrance with its triple doors is surmounted by
long windows and flanked by wide projecting bays, the latter taking the
form of monumental pylons. The severity of the symmetrical wings is
relieved by an effective arrangement of windows, which are designed in
five bays separated by the vertical lines of narrow buttresses. These
windows provide clerestory lighting for the executive chambers within.
A row of square windows pierce the wall of the first story.
The most decorative feature of the exterior is the cylindrical dome,
resembling the fluted drum of a column. The base is pierced by a row
of narrow stone-grilled openings. The dome is surmounted by a heroic
figure, The Pioneer, by Ulric Ellerhusen. The building is 400 feet in
length, 164 feet in width and 166 feet in height.
The focal point of the interior of the Capitol building is the circular
rotunda. It is finished in Travertine Rose, marble-like stone from Mon-
tana. In the center of the marble floor is the seal of the State of Oregon.
Four large murals depicting the history of the state decorate the upper
walls of the rotunda. The two by Barry Faulkner, of New York, tell
the stories of Captain Gray landing at the mouth of the Columbia River,
and Dr. John McLoughlin welcoming settlers at Fort Vancouver. Those
of Frank Swartz, ako of New York, picture the Lewis and Clark expedition at Celilo Falls, and a wagon train of 1843. Four smaller murals
by the same artists represent Oregon's industrial development. Faulk-
ner's represent the wheat and fruit industries, and fishing, and lum-
bering. Swartz's depict sheep raising and mining, and dairying and cattle
raising. The governor's suite, of three spacious rooms, is finished in
native myrtlewood. OREGON End OF The Trail 1940