Tom Fuller

Oregon's Capitol Buildings (Images of America (Arcadia Publishing)) Tom Fuller

The state of Oregon has had not one, not two, but three state capitol buildings. Two of them met a sudden and unexpected enddestruction by fire. William Willson, a pioneer of Salem, donated some acres from his Donation Land Claim for a state capitol. The first, built in 1855, may have been torched in a desperate fight to move the capitol to Corvallis. A second capitol, built in 1873, was patterned after the US Capitol in Washington, DC. This capitol, adorned with a beautiful copper-clad dome, faced west toward the Willamette River. On April 25, 1935, a fire started in a basement storage area. It quickly spread to the whole structure, and within four hours, the entire thing lay in ruins. After an exhaustive design process, a new capitol was built in the midst of the Great Depression, topped with a golden pioneer.