BOISE, Idaho — On Monday afternoon, Idaho Gov. Brad Little gave his third State of the State Address. While this annual overview of the upcoming year has become a formality at the beginning of every legislative session, those sessions were every year.
Up until 1969, those sessions were every other year, which is why Idaho is only in the 66th session of the Idaho Legislature.
The sessions haven't always taken place at the Idaho Statehouse. In fact, they have only been held there for just over 100 years.
Unlike any other Statehouse in the country, Idahoans can walk into the Capitol building at any time of the day. During the session, it's filled with people who are there to represent other people from across the state.
At 208 feet high, the Idaho Capitol is not the tallest building in town, but what it lacks in elevation it makes up for in expanse. The Statehouse covers two blocks of the downtown urban grid.
Construction on the Statehouse began in 1905 and took place in two phases. The first phase, the central portion consisting of the rotunda and dome, the north wing, and the offices on either side of the east and west corridors.
They were built using local resources, including sandstone from Table Rock and the Boise Foothills as a way to serve as a symbol of the people and land of Idaho.
Convicts from the old Idaho State Penitentiary were responsible for transporting the ten-ton sandstone blocks from Table Rock to the Capitol, a ten-mile round trip.
The sandstone is shaped to look like stacked logs, an ode to the early style of log structures in Idaho's pioneering era.
After seven years of construction, the central portion was finished in 1912. In 1919, crews began building the east and west wings, which opened in 1920.
The Statehouse cost a whopping $2.1 million to complete. Since then, Idaho's Capitol has undergone several other expansions and renovations, the latest beginning in 2007.
The three-year project included the building of underground wings on both the east and the west side of the Capitol, which were completed in 2010.
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