of course when myers completed the capitol in 1888, we actually were able to house all of the state government within these walls. as you could imagine, state government has grown since then and at this point the supreme court offices in another adjacent building. but this room really gives us an if opportunity to talk a little bit about the supreme court and the judicial branch of government, across the way we have the appeals courtroom and in between these two our tour guides are able to tell the public about that branch of the government and really provide a great deal of information in terms of how texas government works today. we are very hopeful that um have a chance to come visit the texas capitol personally. we love to see not only texans walk through our doors but we see literally hundreds of thousands of people walk through our doors from not only all 50 states in the united states, but really from several foreign countries as well. come visit us so we could tell you the story of texas, we could tell you about texas history and

hopefully able to share our wonderful texas capitol with you. the capitol of california was not supposed to be in sacramento. actually a little farther down in the road in the bay area is where the first legislature met and they met also in vallejo and in beneesha which is closer to san francisco but still close enough to sacramento. when they first decided where to place a capitol, they wanted it closer to an area that people could get to quickly. and sacramento had a lot going for it. because of the gold rush in 1849, it brought a lot people in. so we had saloons and roads and a way to get here, the sacramento river. through tops and starts, eventually sacramento was chosen in 1854 to be the state capitol and construction on this building started in about 1860.

it took about 14 years to complete, as is the case with a lot of state capitols around the country. the civil war era brought a lot of stops and starts. it went through a seismic two year test to see if this building would with stand an earthquake. there was a huge earthquake in the southern california area in 1971. it turned our attention it the fact that with modernization and floors and mezzanine and trying to make this victorian building look modern, they decided to go ahead and see if it would with stand an earthquake. it was condemned. it basically the bricks holding together the building, you could put a pencil through it. and they said it was being held up by habit and gravity. now senator collier drew up plans for a modern office space to include two towers and it

would take $42 million to basically take down the capitol, down to the ground, and then about $70 million to build. that was shelved for a while. but people were turning their attention to the by centennial and 1976 so a bill introduced in the assembly in 1975 created the ability for us to take the money that would be used for the collier towers ab redire-- and redirect it to save the building and make it earthquake retrofitted and they saw that it could be done to six years and $68 million later what we're looking at is a recreation of what you would have seen in 1900 through 1910. we are in the assembly chambers. we are on the -- what they call the floor of the assembly.

the galleries are above us and where the public would sit and view the legislature. the idea that cal well is diverse is reflected in our 80 members. they all sit at desks that were here in 1869. first time this room was used, the devins were sitting here and they are brand-new and a story of -- of a gentleman who immigrated here and made california his home because of the possibilities. john brunner was from germany. he was a wood worker and he came to california during the gold rush, 1849, 1850, because he was a wood workers, he actually created tools for miners. they would use either bowls or later on in time rocker cs whic look like baby cradles an we have one on the state seal and you could put more dirt through and be more efficient in finding the gold. he made those. and miners asked him to make

beds and it grew to be a huge business which is online today. believe it or not. so john brunner created the desks that you see. there is 80 of them and they are a -- 40 in the senate and we still use them today. our legislature since the 1960s has been full time. prior to that it was part-time. because of that we had many people be reelocated over and over -- re-elected over and over again and they thought it might not be good to have career politicians and by the california voters we became a state of term limits. here in the is assembly, they would serve two years terms and repeat that three times. six years total. over in the senate it was two four-year terms. and in 2012 the voters made a decision again and it changed.

between 1990 and 2012 many attempts were made but they were voted down. but in 2012 the voters decided that each legislator could serve a total of 12 years in either house. interestingly enough, we had two really significant assembly members here in california prior to term limits. and one of them served 15 years as speaker. now the speaker of the assembly or the house in other states is elected by the members themselves and a gentleman named willie brown who was born -- raised by a single mox in texas, a rags to riches story became very influential in politics and a strong african-american political in california. he was here for a while and served to 15 years and had to term out and went on to be mayor of san francisco. a former speaker who had a lot of power in -- for nine years, he had a committee hearing room

named after him and recently, about 2004, 2005, john britain who was pro tem has a hearing room named after him but it was his brother that went from the asemi by in 1966 through 64 through congress representing the bay area. two legislators of renoun. a number of lawmakers have gone on to careers representing california in the united states congress. there are some interesting things around the room itself. the portrait of abraham lincoln for instance is above the speakers rosterum. in the senate a portrait of george washington hangs over the leadership desk. the picture of lincoln is done by william cogswell who was an artist who sketched lincoln as -- in person and did a number of paintings from his sketches during the civil war.

so abe happraham lincoln in 190 1910 would be as considered as george washington would have been. so you have two significant presidents hanging in our chambers. with the leireminder that we ar connected to the united states. california being so far west, and not a lot in between, the idea that we could create the look of the capitol, with as close to what the united states capitol looked like, we're the wild west, they are building this huge building with a dome and columns, very similar in look and style to the united states capitol, that wasn't by mistake. it was the idea that we were part of this particular government right now, this is who our identity is. and so you see a lot of symbolism in the rooms, in fact the green color of the assembly and the red color of the senate are stemmed from what was being used during the united states capitol at that time in the united states -- in their house and senate and it actually has

roots that go back to british parliament where we got our two house system. green house of commons. red house of lords. well now we're in the senate. and we're actually on the third floor of the capitol. and the third floor was a gallery. so the chairs you see around you are for the people. now legislative sessions are always open to the public and at any time you're going to see either a lot of people, a lot of school children or a lot of nobody depending on what is going on. a lot of bills have gone through this room and that have been very controversial. of course that is what the capitol was built for. we are a bill making building. and to be a place where california representatives, legislators, would make decisions on pieces of legislation and turn them into law. for instance, in 1911 you saw

some monumental bills being passed in here. due to progressive era governments. now prior to about 1911 a lot of legislation was favored toward special interests, the railroad was a huge special interest here in california. but a governor that was -- actually ae elected in 1910, sacramento native, brought in the progressive era politics. which meant that it was government in the service of people. creating bills and legislation that would assist people in various walks of life. for instance, in 1911 you saw compulsory education in california. and you also saw an eight hour work day. specifically for women in the workforce but you could still work six days. you couldn't -- you couldn't go over 48 hours a week. and monumentally the woman's suffrage bill was approved, it was an amendment here passed by both the senate and the assembly and ratified by a slim 2% of the majority in the state of

california. also significant is a referendum, the initiative and the recall. the idea to you could directly vote on something bypassing legislative approval. in fact in 1972, the people of california reintroduced the death penalty into california based on initiative process. at the top of the senate, right above the president pro tempore desk you see a bronze statue of minerva. she's called athena in greece. she was placed on the california state seal in 1849. but minerva represented also california's becoming a state. without ever being a territory. minerva in her ancient roman story spring full grown from the brain of jupiter and she was never a baby and never a young child, just right off the bat, full grown.

like california that became the 31st state without ever being a territory. and that we were pretty proud of that in 1849. to put that on the state seal in 1849, not having been a state yet, they were -- that was it. they had decided, we were either going to be a state or an in dependent repuck liblic and tha she is up there. and we are in one of our historic rooms, the first floor was turned into basically a first floor museum. showing people what government was like, the office culture of the turn of the srncentury. so we are in the governor's main office during the 1906 san francisco earthquake names georgia party. they used these office complexes until 1950 until the east wing, the an ex opened up and the governor's office moved down

there. you were seeing a lot of things reflected in the onulence of the period. the heavy curtains, the woodworking on the walls to represent tooled leather, but this was a working functional office so it must have been amazingly busy during the time of the earthquake when the governor went to oakland, the two exec secretaries to take everything and the donations came right to the governor and the best communication you had was physically being there, a telephone and telegraph. so here in the office we have actually a telegraph from roosevelt asking how he could help and it came the day the day after so there are things that you could show the people on government and how it changes and the things that governor's office does. now we talked a little bit about progressive era laws that were pead. most significantly women's suffrage plus the initiative and the recall and referendum and here in the governor's office is

a perfect place to talk about that. although the recall was used significantly right afterwards to recall people on commissions, that were friendly to the railroad, legislators an things like that, it had never successfully been used to recall a governor until most recently. in 2003, governor gray davis was recalled. and at the same time on the same ballot, a new governor was elected. a person well-known throughout the united states if not the world, arnold schwarzenegger and he became governor in 2004 based on a recall. gray dave was only the second governor to be recalled in the united states. another state had recalled a governor in 1921 so it is not used very often to recall a governor. though attempts are made to recall governors. in fact, ronald reagan had an attempted recall, our current governor jerry brown in his -- when he was governor prior to

this, this is his second term of office, and his dad edmond g. brown who was governor were both recalled but unsuccessful. preserving old billings gives a feeling of solidarity. the values that were valuable back then are still valuable now. the original intent of the building was still here. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ welcome to the wisconsin state capitol we are standing in the rotunda of the building. this is the public area of the capitol. this is where we have all of our big