ANNOUNCER: Major funding for Idaho Experience provided by the J.A.

and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation, making Idaho a place to learn, thrive and prosper.

With additional support from Anne Voillequé and Louise Nelson, and Judy and Steve Meyer, the Richard K. and Shirley S. Hemingway Foundation, the Friends of Idaho Public Television, the Idaho Public Television Endowment, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

NARRATOR: Can we tell the [MUSIC] NARRATOR: Can we tell the story of a state with granite and sandstone and marble?

Can we better understand the hopes and aspirations of its people by the design, the attention to detail, even the political intrigue and controversy that surrounds such a grand enterprise?

JOHN TOURTELLOTTE: "If the people are well balanced in their ideal and understand that the great white light of conscience must be allowed to shine and by its interior illumination make clear the path of duty, then this capitol truly represents the commonwealth of Idaho."

NARRATOR: One hundred years ago, that's what buildings did.

The great ones told our story.

Perhaps they still do.

NARRATOR: Before you can have a [MUSIC] NARRATOR: Before you can have a capitol building, you need a capital city, and that was up for grabs in the early days of Idaho history.

After Congress created the Idaho Territory in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln appointed William Wallace as its governor.

Wallace had been instrumental in defining the territorial borders and thought Lewiston the best choice as the seat of government.

But Lewiston had changed since Wallace's last visit.

Once a bustling mining-supply town of several thousand people, much of its population had migrated south and east to the gold fields of central Idaho.

Within a few years, a delegation of lawmakers from Boise managed to convince the new governor, Caleb Lyon, that the seat of power should be in southern Idaho, where the people and commerce were thriving.

And so, in 1865, the capital was moved from Lewiston to Boise in a dramatic transfer of power-or as, northern Idaho saw it, an act of blatant theft.

In all but name, Idaho was still the Wild West, where laws were challenged and often ignored.

Legislators from northern Idaho refused to acknowledge all efforts to move the capital; a Lewiston judge even ordered an injunction against it.

KEITH PETERSEN: That probate judge posted an armed guard around the territorial records and threatened to arrest Caleb Lyon or anyone else who came to remove them.

NARRATOR: But Caleb Lyon had already left town.

In fact, he had left the territory.

PETERSEN: He said he was going to leave town for a day and go duck hunting in Walla Walla, and he never came back.

I mean, I think he really feared for his wellbeing in Lewiston.

He was a very unpopular guy.

NARRATOR: With Lyon gone, it fell to the territorial secretary and now acting governor, Clinton DeWitt Smith, to retrieve the seal and territory papers from Lewiston.

Under the protection of a federal troop escort, he met no resistance when he rode into town that day.

After nearly a month on horseback, Smith finally reached Boise on April 14, 1865-coincidentally, the same day that President Lincoln was shot.

But news of the assassination had not yet made it to the Idaho Territory.

The coup performed by Smith no doubt added to the air of anticipation around Boise.

The town was buzzing with activity and excitement as the main supply center for Boise Basin's mining towns, where the gold rush was in full swing.

The government set up shop in rented space for the next two decades before finally constructing a proper territorial capitol 1886.

But it wasn't until well after gaining statehood in 1890 that state leaders looked to design a capitol building befitting a prosperous new state.

JANET GALLIMORE: A lot of growth was happening.

That in part was because of the Carey Act, which opened up water reclamation.

So there was a lot of building of all of our irrigation canals and really supporting expansion of agriculture in the state.

So where there was once desert, then there was land that could support crops, and so that was an amazing transformation during that timeframe.

NARRATOR: Mining and timber were also factors in the growing economy.

As the population grew, so did state revenues.

People were coming to Idaho to stay, and they needed more services.

In 1905, Governor Frank Gooding formed the first Capitol Commission to oversee the process of building a new capitol building.

ANDY ERSTAD: The Commission was established from the beginning through the completion of the wings in 1921.

As a lot of people aren't aware, the capitol building was built in two phases-first, the center portion, and then the two wings, the senate and the house side.

NARRATOR: To get ideas for Idaho's stately structure, the Capitol Commission toured several other state capitols.

In the end, they liked the design of the Mississippi Capitol the best.

Now, they just needed to find the right architects to build it.

Boise architectural partners John E. Tourtellotte and Charles Hummel stood out after a fierce competition with architects from Idaho and elsewhere.

The winning design used skylights and marble to showcase the architects' vision-one of grandeur and beauty and light, but also highly functional for the business of state.

Tourtellotte and Hummel were known as highly skilled architects, with buildings and houses to their credit throughout Idaho.

Grand structures like the Carnegie Library near downtown Boise and the Union Block on Idaho Street were just a few.

The two men were an unlikely pair-Hummel, a German-born immigrant, and Tourtellotte, a Connecticut farm boy.

SCOTT STRAUBHAR: John Tourtellotte was the creative force behind the building, sort of the designer, the visionary.

He kind of came up with the idea of the Capitol of Light.

Charles Hummel was more of the nuts-and-bolts guy.

I think that's a good complement.

You have someone that's very creative and someone that is very detailed, that can put it all together.

NARRATOR: Together, they would design and build Idaho's Capitol of Light.

NARRATOR: Construction on the [HAMMERING] NARRATOR: Construction on the capitol began in 1905.

Funds came from selling public lands and issuing bonds.

And because money was tight, construction would occur in two stages, starting with the central portion, which included the rotunda and the dome.

The architects did all they could to save money.

They used sandstone from the Boise Foothills, cutting the cost of shipping.

The Capitol Commission purchased thirty-five acres of the Table Rock Quarry to ensure the availability of the finest grade and consistent color.

They used local stone cutters to cut the stone-anything from three inches to three feet thick.

And they saved money by using convict labor from the nearby penitentiary to build a road to the quarry.

The bricks were made locally.

And the regular labor was hired through the construction union hall, one of the requirements of the legislature.

The state bought derricks and hoisting machinery used to lift the heavy rock, some of which weighed nearly five tons.

The equipment was sold when the job was done.

No corners were cut on the basics.

Steel, shipped in by rail, was often behind schedule.

The steel work was top of the line.

Specifications called for a tensile strength of more than 60,000 pounds per square inch.

CHARLES HUMMEL: So putting the dome together in particular required quite a bit of knowledge of trigonometry and solid geometry in order to get all those pieces to fit right.

And as far as I know, they fit perfectly the first time they were put up.

NARRATOR: With the steel structure in place, contractors were then able to construct a concrete sheath, waterproof it and add the terra cotta tiles created to match the sandstone in color.

The entire dome structure would be supported by eight colossal columns that extended down through the building all the way to the foundation.

Atop the granite base, artisans carved sandstone to resemble logs, a tribute to our pioneering era.

But everything else about the capitol project pointed to the future: A state-of-the-art central heating and power plant, elevators and fresh-air shafts and indoor plumbing, something the territorial capitol definitely lacked.

Credit Tourtellotte's use of light and of marble and of something called scagliola, a special polished plaster that imitates marble.

It's actually a special decorative coating, 3/32-of-an-inch thick.

The technique originated in Italy and only a handful of artisans ever mastered it.

Craftsmen from New York worked at night on these columns to guard their trade secrets.

HUMMEL: He loved skylights.

And the central rotunda, that white marble and the scagliola, flooded with light is one of the real achievements of this capitol.

Many other state capitols have very ornate rotunda areas.

But this one has a certain quality which I don't think the other capitols have.

NARRATOR: In 1913, the proud new statehouse opened its doors, symbolizing American democracy, resonating against the auburn hues of the nearby foothills and as durable as the mountains from which it was built.

Tourtellotte was justifiably proud of the finished capitol, his glowing words, perhaps recorded on his Dictaphone, were printed in a souvenir booklet for the grand opening.

TOURTELLOTTE: "All the forces of nature are harnessed and made to serve and contribute to the welfare of man in this building.

Idaho's capitol on the interior is flooded with light.

Its rotunda, corridors and interior as a whole is nearer perfect in this respect than any building of its kind perhaps in the world."

NARRATOR: It would be another six years before construction commenced on the original wings of the capitol.

And it would require the demolition of a public school on one side and the Territorial Capitol on the other.

The additions provided grand meeting chambers for the senate and the house of representatives, each capped by a smaller dome.

The capitol, as we have come to know it, was completed in 1920.

The dedication ceremony on January 3, 1921, drew 6,000 people downtown to celebrate the grand opening.

It's not as flamboyant as some capitols, nor as modern looking as others.

Its simple elegance and unfussy décor and its use of natural elements seems to complement a state whose people are, for the most part, humble and grounded to the land.

Over the years, the capitol has stood quietly, echoing the people's wishes, their anger and their dreams.

We have stood on its steps, thousands of us.

We have brought our petitions.

And we have made our most joyful sounds.

For Idahoans, this is truly the people's house.

[MUSIC] NARRATOR: After almost a hundred years of wear and tear, and even a fire, Idaho's statehouse was showing its age.

It needed a facelift and an organ transplant.

In 1997 Governor Batt set in motion the effort to restore the 100-year-old building.

ERSTAD: The initial discussion was we need to renovate this building and we probably ought to have an oversight commission to spearhead that effort.

NARRATOR: Within a year, the legislature had approved the creation of a new state Capitol Commission.

Its mission: to create a master plan for the restoration, renovation and expansion of the capitol.

What would Tourtellotte think?

Would he approve?

It's not often that an architect gets so much attention long after his death.

But John E. Tourtellotte was no ordinary architect.

TOURTELLOTTE: "This architectural exemplar will show that we have nurtured and developed the sublime and beautiful in our nature and have expressed them in our architectural ideal, our capitol."

NARRATOR: As renovation began inside the capitol in 2007, architect John Maulin worked with a team of experts to repair the ravages of time and of past remodels to get back to Tourtellotte's vision.

One remodel, in the 1970s, had the nearly impossible task of making the space inside the building larger without expanding the building.

It was an underfunded effort that sacrificed beautiful rooms like Statuary Hall for more office space.

JOHN MAULIN: I believe the architects all thought it was not something that they wanted to do, but that that's what they were told to do and that is what they had to do.

STRAUBHAR: I think they would be really pleased, really grateful.

I think the renovation that was done in 2006, 2010, through that particular time period, was done exceptionally well.

It was done the right way.

I don't think they would have been too happy to see the building maybe, in the 60s and 70s, when the care hadn't gone into it.

NARRATOR: Statuary Hall is now as Tourtellotte originally envisioned, part of that return to grandeur that the Capitol Commission was seeking.

Generations of visitors to the capitol have assumed that these towering columns are made of marble.

One hundred years ago this scagliola was sometimes referred to as "poor man's marble."

In 2007 specially trained craftsmen began removing the many coats of yellowed varnish added over the years to that original magical sheen.

They patched the holes and the chips and the cracks with a glue-plaster mix, being careful to match the original color on the 186 columns in the old building.

There are more than seven-hundred doors in the capitol.

Originally hand built, they varied in width by as much as two inches.

Some could be saved with a lot of scraping and sanding.

For the new doors, carpenters used Honduran mahogany to match the old ones.

Workers replaced the panes in skylights and removed the additions that had blocked Tourtellotte's original natural light.

MAULIN: All the exterior windows have been replaced with insulated glass so now you don't have the heat loss you had through those windows.

You use the geothermal system that the capitol has available to it.

NARRATOR: All this has helped to give the Idaho Capitol one of the smallest carbon footprints of all the nation's capitols.

Contributing to that is the dome itself, which features an oculus or opening at the top with painted stars symbolizing Idaho's entry into the Union as the forty-third state.

The warm air goes up and out, into the attic space, providing a non-mechanical ventilating system.

One more example of the forward thinking of the original architects.

STRAUBHAR: I think they would be really surprised at all the technology, all the security systems, and the low voltage systems for computers and communicating, that would be of interest to them.

NARRATOR: A lot of the new work you won't see.

It's behind walls, like the fire-suppression system and the plumbing and air conditioning systems and an updated communication system with connections to the internet, most of which Tourtellotte and Hummel could not have imagined.

Something you will see: a complete transformation of the capitol's lowest floor.

It took some doing, but what was once a basement that housed everything from state records to the original historical museum is now the garden level.

And radiating east and west past the new visitors' center, are two 25,000-square-foot wings, one for the house of representatives, and one for the senate.

The first design had two-story underground wings, but the cost of two floors led to some debate and compromise.

ERSTAD: At the end of the day, we ended up with single-level underground wings.

We achieved the major goal and that was hearing rooms that could accommodate hearings of consequence, that could accommodate state ceremonies, that could accommodate public usage.

NARRATOR: To engineer Jack Lemley, who helped build the Chunnel connecting Great Britain with mainland Europe, the new wings made a lot of sense.

It was Lemley who helped convince the Capitol Commission that going underground would work.

JACK LEMLEY: This space is very high-class space underground.

It hasn't destroyed the greater capitol mall, and to me that was one of the most important aspects of putting the wings underground other than straight cost.

[SINGING OF NATIONAL ANTHEM] NARRATOR: In 2010, after three years of construction and remodeling, Governor Butch Otter welcomed the people and their representatives back to the Capitol of Light.

GOVERNOR BUTCH OTTER: Thank you, Andy.

And I now declare the capitol building officially open to conduct the people's business.

[APPLAUSE] [SINGING OF IDAHO STATE SONG] CHORUS: "Silver and gold in the sunlight blaze... and romance lies in her name... We'll go singing, singing of you... Ah proudly, too, all our lives through...We'll go singing, singing of you, singing of Idaho."

NARRATOR: The high reaches of the dome are not open to the public, but with special permission and a guide you can climb all the way to the top.

Along the way, a century of signatures cover the brick walls.

STRAUBHAR: Oh, wow!

NARRATOR: This is Scott Straubhar's first visit, but Andy Erstad has climbed these stairs many times over the years as a member of the Capitol Commission.

ERSTAD: I wish everyone in Boise could have a chance to come up and look at this.

NARRATOR: Andy and Scott worked together as young architects at Hummel Architects, the firm founded by the capitol's builders.

ERSTAD: You needed to see this.

STRAUBHAR: Oh, this is incredible.

ERSTAD: The brilliance of Tourtellotte and Hummel.

It's not very often that we get a glimpse into the backbone and the structure and the superstructure of such a remarkable building.

I keep shaking my head and saying how lucky we were to have Tourtellotte and Hummel and just the brilliance that they brought to the design, and then the people that executed it, the craftsmen and the laborers and the contractors, just remarkable.

NARRATOR: From the top, Andy and Scott look out over a city that Tourtellotte and Hummel would barely recognize today.

One hundred years can change a lot of things, but perhaps one thing that remains constant is the character of a grand building.

January 3, 2021, would mark the one-hundredth anniversary of the dedication of the capitol.

But there were no grand public celebrations or events for such a momentous occasion.

Idaho, like the rest of planet, was fighting a war with the coronavirus.

Celebrations were either cancelled or scaled down sizably to be safe.

It was a year of upheaval for most people.

Some citizens brought their concerns to the steps of the capitol, while others brought their frustrations inside.

[PEOPLE SHOUTING, GLASS BREAKING] NARRATOR: Somehow, it seemed more important than ever to celebrate the capitol's one-hundredth birthday.

Having a celebration would be a fitting response to the wounds inflicted on the grand old building.

LINDEN BATEMAN: The highlight of this year's observation is the hundredth anniversary of this glorious building.

An astounding achievement for a small western state with a small population to create a building like this-one of the most beautiful capitol buildings in the United States and in the world.

GALLIMORE: I think that commemorative moments help us to pause, reflect, think and then act.

Because they are things that we all have in common.

So, when we think about a commemoration like this, what I like to think about is, we all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us and what an honor that is.

ERSTAD: I think the unique thing about our government and this building is that representation from throughout the state comes here once a year to try and hash out all kinds of things.

And everyone comes here representing other people.

STRAUBHAR: Get in your car and drive to the Depot.

Come off the Bench and drive down Capitol Boulevard and really appreciate the building, in that sense.

And then get out of your car and actually just go in and really see the character of the architecture, the light, the statues that have history.

GALLIMORE: We all make history together.

When we think about this building, it reflects, not a static history, it reflects people doing work over a long period of time.

People with vision who created it.

So, I would encourage people to come and engage in this building and in their government.

NARRATOR: Can we tell the story of our state with granite and sandstone and marble?

And one hundred years from now, what will people say of our efforts?

Will they say that the great light of conscience still shines, still makes clear the path of duty?

John Tourtellotte's vision for our capitol still seems attainable.

For this is the people's house.

[MUSIC] ANNOUNCER: Major funding for Idaho Experience provided by the J.A.

and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation, making Idaho a place to learn, thrive and prosper.

With additional support from Anne Voillequé and Louise Nelson, and Judy and Steve Meyer, the Richard K. and Shirley S. Hemingway Foundation, the Friends of Idaho Public Television, the Idaho Public Television Endowment, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.