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Capitol Complex Visitors Center
Rating Details »
Category: Landmarks & Historical Buildings [Edit]
Neighborhood: Downtown112 E 11th St
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 305-8400
16 reviews for Capitol Complex Visitors Center
You can totally catch us hanging out at the Capitol just about anytime of year. (Once we were there during the Monarch migration and found the trees literally dripping with millions of Monarch butterflies.)
You can park in the Capitol Visitor's Parking Garage free for the first 2 hours and after that it's only 75 cents for every half hour. We often park, walk down to the AMOA, and then back up to hang out on the large lawn. It is perfect for picnics and meeting up with friends. The kids run, play, and roll down the hills. We've even done a scavenger hunt here! The Visitor's Center always plays a major part of our visit. The computers upstairs are fun to play on and are full of Texas State facts. They also have cowboy dress up, movies to watch, and museum quality stuff to peruse.
If you're thinking about visiting a state park or two, you can pick up brochures on every park in the state here. They also have free state maps that are quite large. (You can then get them laminated for cheap at Teacher Heaven and the kids can use them to plot out vacations, etc with dry erase markers.)
(Btw, if you have a stroller or wheelchair, you have to take the sidewalk around and behind the building to get on the elevator to the 1st floor.)
Stopped by again yesterday while taking some tourists by the Capital and replaced our Texas maps. While the maps they offer here are free, they tend to be thin and start to fall apart. So grab two. They are some of the best Texas roadmaps you can get and the price (free) is right!
I have already admitted numerous times my ability to be a complete nerd and/or geek. And for that reason alone you should listen to me.
The Captial Building in Austin, Texas is awe-inspiring. It is indeed both beautiful and historic and everything you might be looking for both for a third grade field trip, or an adult side trip for FREE. Free is always good, my friends.
I love architecture, and the Austin Captial is glorious! Not only that, but you can wander through and see every governor of the state there ever was, even before they were called governors.
Sometimes, if you're there at the right time, you can be involved in book readings, or just sit on the senate chamber floor. How effing cool is that? Ok... that's the geek in me talking. But really, I had the most wonderful time here. It was full of information, design, history... it was amazing. I even got a picture of me next to the bronze bust of LBJ and my good friend, President Bush the first. I gave him a little kiss.
They have an awesome mosaic of the Alamo as well. I was looking for my bike, but still couldn't find it. Something about basements?
Anyway... if you're into history and geekidness like me... should totally check out the state capital. It's well worth it, and well worth the price, free.
The ground also holds some pretty awesome park like features, and a few monuments, like the one for fallen Texas Rangers.
Wonderful. I can't wait to see it again!!!
Did you know you could visit the Capitol 24x7? So say it is 11 PM on a random Tuesday and you have out of town guests visiting. You are done with dinner and looking for fun. Drive them up to the Capitol and pretend that you are going to sneak them in. Of course there are others doing the same thing. You can even lay down on the big star on the floor and look all the way up to the top. The Capitol police just look at you like they've seen it all already.
What a hoot. Ann Richards picture on the wall to smile at. Bush picture on the wall to scowl at!
Update: I just found out the extended hours are only during legislative sessions. If not in session, you can only frolic until 10 PM on weekdays and 8 PM on weekends. Minus one star for that!
This was the first thing I did when I came to Austin. How can you resist going to the Capitol when you see this tall, beautiful, easy to recognize building everywhere you walk in downtown?
The garden surrounding the Capitol is gorgeous, with lovely rose garden, small fountain and some interesting statues. Sometimes, many times, they will have events outside of Capitol.
The free tour is a must if you get in there. It's informative and educational.
The star inside the top of the rotunda dome is 8 feet wide. A scene from Spy Kids 2 was filmed in the outdoor rotunda. The capitol building is made of "sunset" granite, quarried 50 miles from Austin by 1000 prisoners. Texas had a woman governor before women were allowed to vote. Want to learn more trivia like this? Then visit the Capitol!
If you haven't taken the 45 min. tour of the State Capitol, you should go! It's free, and the tour guides are well-informed with interesting details and good stories. The building is beautiful and the grounds are really well kept. In fact, I like to eat lunch outside there sometimes during the week. This is a great place to take out of town guests. The Bob Bullock Museum is walking distance, and there are plenty of places to eat nearby, so you could definitely make a day of it.
Metered parking is available on nearby streets, and I've never had trouble finding a space, but if you prefer a garage, you can pay to park at the Bob Bullock museum north of the capitol or you can park for free at 13th and San Jacinto, east of the capitol.
See map here:http://www.tspb.state....
I love the capital of Texas (Austin) and I love the capitol (building) tour. If anyone would like to enlighten me on why these are spelled differently, please do!
But, I digress. The tour is awesome. Although I have only lived in Austin for about a year and a half, I have been on the tour over ten times. Each time has been different and each tour guide has told me something new about the state capitol. I guess each docent is allowed to talk about what interests them and how cool is that!
Some want to talk deeply about the building and all its features, others will talk to you in-depth about the paintings and sculptures. Some will talk about the battles, others about famous legislators. I LOVE the tour -- always something new. Every visitor I have is forced to come with me on a tour of the capitol before they get to have bbq.
There's no doubt that the State of Texas has an extensive history - and touring the State Capitol was like walking into history itself.
I've done the state capitol tour in Sacramento, California and visited the legislative branches for both the House of Representatives and Senate. We were not allowed on the house floors - so to be allowed to be in the rooms at the Texas State Capitol was awesome.
Looking up at the rotunda - you just had to be in awe of the architectural structure and how skilled the craftsmen of that time had to be in order to build such an amazing structure.
We spent most of our afternoon on the State Capitol grounds before we left to return home - definitely time well spent.
Holy S*%@! They have a statue commemorating the Confederacy!!! AAAAAK!!!! THAT IS NOT NORMAL!!!!
Texas is considered a weird state by any self-respecting Northerner and my visit to the Capitol Building confirmed this suspicion.
Make sure you go down to the basement of the original building. In the wings are hung enormous composite pictures of legislatures past. Each congressman gets an oval photograph with his name and district lettered neatly around it. In the early ones from the turn of the previous century you can still see layout pencil marks and slight flaws in the hand-inked text. The photographs have been cut with scissors into ovals and glued to the pasteboard. They've cut out tiny pictures of newborn babies and pasted them in the middle - not sure why, but they made sure their children are entered into the historical record of the legislature. Those babies are octogenarians now.
Take a long look at those be-grizzled Texas politicians, the young clerks. It's easy to imagine them sitting stiffly and self-consciously in the photographer's studio. Harder to imagine them laughing or dancing , or at play.
Another must-see site is the Texas state capitol. The dome is really nice - there's the lone star you can see at the top of the dome when you stand inside. They take you on a guided tour, which is nice. After the tour you can walk around a bit, and shop at the gift shop.
Texas has a rich history, and this is definately a place to learn about some of it. The state capitol isn't just some other state capitol - you are in the capital of the Republic of Texas, afterall.
Hushed tones met with tired stares from security made me and Brad W all the giddier as we sauntered over here after seeing TEXAS: The Big Picture (on IMAX, of course), and after learning that our capitol building is taller than the nation's capitol, we had to push our wannabe coolness aside, because it IS impressive.
The best part? The succession of governor's portraits...George W right next to Ann Richards... Bizarre and food for thought.
Seeing is understanding. If you don't "get" Texas, you might start here. Free entry, free tours, and the building stays open late. The grounds are pleasant to stroll through. You'll probably even learn something.
Love the architecture! A must see place!
The State Capitol tour was excellent, where else can you learn about Texas, it's independence and the scene for the Spy Kids movie?
Talking about site seeing at Austin, this is a must go place! We spend there for a couple of hours with the guided tour, and it was nice. I highly recommend this place for touring Austin.
