The Capitol That Rose From the Prairie
On a cold morning in January 1922, the Nebraska State Legislature convened inside a building that was literally falling apart. Cracks snaked through the walls of the old State Capitol, built in 1868 when Lincoln was barely a year old. The limestone was crumbling. The floors sagged. The structure, designed for a frontier territory of 100,000 souls, now housed the government of a state approaching 1.3 million. Something had to be done.
The legislature faced a choice that would define Lincoln for generations: patch the old building or dare to build something new. They chose ambition. On April 15, 1919, they had already authorized a design competition for a new capitol—but not just any capitol. They wanted a building that would announce Nebraska's identity to the world, a structure that would last centuries, and a design that broke from the traditional domed capitols that dotted the American landscape.
Architect Bertram Goodhue won the commission with a radical vision: a 400-foot tower rising from the Great Plains, visible for miles, topped with a bronze figure he called 'The Sower'—a farmer scattering seed, the perfect symbol for an agricultural state. Goodhue rejected the classical dome in favor of a soaring vertical form inspired by ancient ziggurats and modern skyscrapers. 'The answer to a new problem must be a new solution,' Goodhue declared. Construction began in 1922.
The project took ten years and cost $10 million—funded entirely without borrowing, a point of pride for Depression-era Nebraskans who believed in living within their means. Workers used Indiana limestone for the exterior and imported materials from across the nation. Artist Hildreth Meière designed intricate mosaics depicting Nebraska's history, agriculture, and ideals. Sculptor Lee Lawrie carved figures representing wisdom, justice, and mercy into the stone. The tower's observation deck, 250 feet above the ground, offered views stretching to the horizon—a reminder that Nebraska's government belonged to the people of the plains.
