Oregon State Capitol

In the 1850s, the very concept of Oregon's capital was a restless, wandering institution. The territorial legislature actually passed a bill in 1855 to move the seat of government south to Corvallis, and they even convened there briefly. But the governor strongly objected, the federal government intervened, and the politicians were dragged right back to Salem. Almost immediately after they returned, the nearly finished statehouse burned to the ground in a widely suspected arson, setting off years of bitter political bickering over where Oregon's headquarters truly belonged. As you might be noticing, the constant threat of fire continually forced Salem to reinvent its skyline, replacing old timber and unreinforced masonry with increasingly ambitious designs. As we discussed at the Supreme Court, the ultimate disaster struck decades later in 1935. The state's second capitol building caught fire in the basement. Due to a major design flaw, the building's hollow structural columns acted like giant chimneys, sucking the flames rapidly upward into the magnificent copper dome until the intense heat caused the entire roof to collapse. This brilliant white, two point five million dollar structure you are looking at, which is about fifty-four million dollars in today's money, was the direct result of that 1935 blaze. Instead of building another traditional domed replica, the architects chose a striking Art Deco design. Art Deco is an architectural style popular in the 1930s that focuses on sleek, streamlined geometry and stripped-down modern ornamentation rather than fussy classical details. If you tap the image in your app, you can slide between how this looked in 1919 and today to see quite a transformation. When it was first unveiled, the public was less than thrilled with the modern look. That cylindrical structure on the roof, known in architecture as a cupola, was relentlessly mocked. Critics called it a giant paint can, or worse, a squirrel cage, claiming it lacked the majesty of a traditional dome. Even the golden Oregon Pioneer statue on top faced local ridicule because real loggers thought his axe looked puny. But over the decades, this unconventional fortress of marble has become a beloved, disaster-hardened symbol of the state.