One of the things we’ve decided to do on our 50 state road trip is visit every state house / state capitol building. We messed up in Georgia, but we’ve visited every one since then.
We’re now on our 11th state and visited the Kansas State Capitol building a few days ago. It was one of the nicer state houses we’ve visited as it was ornate without being garish, beautiful without appearing to have had excessive amounts of money lavished on it.
It also had a couple of additional features and experiences we’ve not seen at other state houses, so it’s definitely worth visiting. In case you never make it to Topeka, here’s a tour of the Kansas State Capitol building in 12 photos.
The building looks impressive from the outside and is topped with a statue called Ad Astra. It’s a Kansa Warrior which pays homage to the Native American history in the state. The statue is much newer than the building as it was only added in 2002. It took more than 100 years for a statue to be chosen – you can read the history of it here which is worth doing as it’s an interesting story.
The Kansas State Capitol offers free guided tours, but we didn’t have time for one of those unfortunately. There was meter parking outside and we only had enough coins to stay 45 minutes, so be sure to bring more than $0.75 in change if you ever visit!
Instead, we went on a self-guided tour to explore the building at our own pace. It started with some exhibits on display on the ground floor featuring historical information about Kansas.
One of the exhibits was a 34 star US flag which the nation adopted when Kansas joined the union in 1861.
Before heading off on our self-guided tour, the staff member at the Visitor Center had advised that we were free to look in any room that was empty and had its door open. That includes places like committee rooms which aren’t particularly interesting to look at.
Some of the more interesting rooms could be found on higher levels though, so we headed up in the elevator to the fourth floor. On one side of the building was the Senate Gallery…
…while the opposite side of the building was home to the House of Representatives Gallery.
We then headed downstairs to the third floor where we checked out the State Library of Kansas. I don’t remember ever seeing a State Library in any of the other State Capitol buildings we’ve visited, but I might be mistaken.
The library was beautiful and featured all kinds of old documents and books, including a book of statutes written before Kansas joined the union.
After the library, we stopped in to look at the Old Supreme Court which nowadays is mostly used for committee meetings. The Supreme Court is now based in the nearby Kansas Judicial Center building.
Topeka is also home to the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, something we visited later that day. The Capitol building houses some artwork honoring that.
One of the most impressive parts of the building is its dome. While you can see it from other levels, you get the best view from the ground floor.
The Kansas State Capitol gives you a fun way to see the dome from a different perspective too. There are free dome tours you can go on that take you up 296 steps into the dome itself. It was a shame that we didn’t have time to take that tour due to the limited amount of time on our parking meter outside. It’s definitely something that would be fun to do if we ever return to Topeka. We could then also get the T-shirt below as a souvenir.
Address
Kansas State Capitol, SW 8th & SW Van Buren, Topeka, KS 66612
Wow that looks like an amazing building. Love the dome. Too bad you couldn’t climb it. Just a thought – looks like they had a gift shop. They wouldn’t give you chance for the meter? Thank you for sharing these pictures. I wish I could do what you are doing. I love following your escapades and am glad I happened upon your blog.
Melanie Wagner
Ps you must miss home cooked meals.
That’s a great suggestion about the gift shop, but we unfortunately didn’t have any other cash with us either. We usually pay for everything with our cards and so carry minimal coins and bills – we’d used the rest of our change doing laundry at the hotel the night before.
Home cooked meals aren’t too much of a problem thankfully as I put together a portable kitchen that we have with us on the road trip – you can read more about that here: https://nohomejustroam.com/portable-kitchen-road-trip/ It includes an Instant Pot, so I can still make most meals that I used to when we had a regular kitchen 🙂
Thanks for following along with our road trip – I’m glad you’re enjoying it too!
Oh!!! I came here to see if you did the dome!!! If you have a chance, go back and do it! We had to return again during our road trip this summer so the whole family would complete it, since the first time through only half did. It is amazing! And TERRIFYING! And we got the shirts lol
Oh man, I’m really disappointed we didn’t do it now! We might have to do a day trip back to Topeka when we’re in Nebraska or Missouri.
It’s totally worth it! One of our favorite state capitol buildings by far!
For future trips, you can park in the underground parking under the Capitol building, which is free. There are two levels and an elevator that takes you right into the building. You can also ask for the “singing” tour, since one of the tour guides loves to sing, but I’d call ahead since he isn’t always there.
Good luck!
That’s really good to know – thanks!