The first two capitol buildings were in downtown. When it came time to build the third in 1904, land was too expensive, so legislators acquired an old livery stable. Architect Cass Gilbert's Minnesota State Capitol marble dome, in St. Paul, modeled after St. Peter's in Rome, is one of the largest in the U.S. Gilbert said that his plan was "in the Italian Renaissance style, in quiet, dignified character, expressing its purpose in its exterior appearance."
