This guide is about the state side of Austin: the Texas Capitol and the streets around it. It covers the Capitol building and its rotunda, the underground Capitol Extension, the old General Land Office that is now the visitors centre, the Governor's Mansion, Congress Avenue with the Paramount Theatre, and the Congress Avenue Bridge, where a huge colony of bats lives. All of them lie along one straight line from the Capitol down to the river.
Texas Capitol
The Texas Capitol was designed in 1881 by the architect Elijah E. Myers and built between 1882 and 1888; it opened to the public in April 1888 and was dedicated that May. It stands 302.64 feet tall, which makes it one of several state capitols taller than the U.S. Capitol in Washington. The state had no money to build it, so the contractors, the Capitol Syndicate of John V. and Charles B. Farwell, were paid in land: more than three million acres in the Texas Panhandle, which became the XIT Ranch.
The building was planned in limestone, but the local stone streaked with rust, and the owners of Granite Mountain near Marble Falls donated red granite instead. A railway spur carried the stone to Austin. Much of the work was done by convicts and migrant workers, and the crew included 86 granite cutters brought from Scotland. In February 1983 a fire that started in the lieutenant governor's apartment killed a guest and badly damaged the east wing; the building was later restored.
- The Goddess of Liberty on top of the dome: the statue there now is an aluminium copy, lifted into place in June 1986; the original was taken down by helicopter in 1985 and is now in the Bullock Museum.
- The colour of the walls: the stone is known as sunset red granite, and it looks warmest in late afternoon light.
- The south front, facing Congress Avenue, with the main entrance and the long lawn in front of it.
Inside: the rotunda and the Capitol Extension
Inside the south entrance, the rotunda rises 218 feet to the inner dome. Look straight up to see a large star made of sheet metal at the very top, with the letters of the word TEXAS set around it. The walls are lined with portraits of the presidents of the Republic of Texas and the governors of the state: the newest hang on the first floor and the oldest on the fourth.
North of the old building, the Capitol Extension was added underground and completed in 1993. It has four floors below the lawn and provides offices and hearing rooms, without changing the look of the historic building above the lawn.
- The terrazzo floor of the rotunda, with the seals of the six nations that have governed Texas: Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States and the United States.
- The view up the open floors of the rotunda from the centre of the floor.
Capitol Visitors Center
At the south-east corner of the grounds stands the old General Land Office, built in 1856–1857 for the office that managed the state's public lands. Its plans were drawn by Christoph Conrad Stremme, a German-born architect, and it mixes classical and medieval forms in a look that resembles a small castle. William Sydney Porter, later famous as the writer O. Henry, worked here for three years as a draftsman drawing county maps, and he set two of his stories in the building. After a restoration from 1989 to 1992 it opened in 1994 as the Capitol visitors centre.
- What to look for: the castle-like outline of the building, which sets it apart from everything else on the Capitol grounds.
Texas Governor's Mansion
Across 11th Street from the Capitol grounds, the Governor's Mansion is a white Greek Revival house designed by Abner Cook, a builder and architect who shaped much of early Austin, and finished in 1856. It is the oldest continuously inhabited house in Texas and has been the home of the state's governors since then.
In June 2008, while the house was empty for renovation, a firebomb thrown at it started a fire that badly damaged it; nobody was ever charged. The mansion was restored and reopened in 2012. Its tall columns on the front porch are easy to see from the street.
Congress Avenue and the Paramount Theatre
Congress Avenue is Austin's main street. It runs straight from the river up to the south front of the Capitol, so the dome closes the view as you walk north. Along it stand old commercial buildings from the 19th and early 20th centuries alongside newer towers.
At 713 Congress Avenue, the Paramount Theatre opened on 11 October 1915 as the Majestic, a vaudeville house on the Interstate circuit, designed by John Eberson. The Marx Brothers played here in the vaudeville years, and in 1966 it hosted the world premiere of Batman: The Movie. The theatre was restored from the late 1970s and still hosts films, comedy and concerts.
- What to look for: the tall vertical blade sign spelling PARAMOUNT, lost in 1963 and lit again in 2015.
Congress Avenue Bridge and its bats
At the south end of downtown, Congress Avenue crosses Lady Bird Lake, a reservoir on the Colorado River, on the Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge, named in 2006 after the former governor. Under the bridge lives the largest urban bat colony in the world: Mexican free-tailed bats, estimated at between 750,000 and 1.5 million each summer.
It is a maternity colony. Pregnant females arrive in spring, raise their young from mid-summer into autumn, and fly to Mexico for the winter. At dusk they pour out from under the bridge and head east along the lake to feed. By the mid-1980s the colony was large enough to cause alarm in the city; today crowds gather on the bridge, the banks and boats to watch.
- Tip: come in the warm months and be in place before sunset; the bats leave from the underside of the bridge, so the riverbanks give a good side view.
How to see them in one walk
Start at the Capitol Visitors Center at the south-east corner of the grounds, then walk up to the south entrance of the Capitol and see the rotunda. Walk through to the north side to find the Capitol Extension, then step out to 11th Street for a look at the Governor's Mansion. Come back through the grounds to the south front and walk down Congress Avenue past the Paramount Theatre to the river. Time the last part so you reach the Congress Avenue Bridge before sunset.
See Austin with World City Trail
Our Austin scavenger hunt turns the university and the Capitol district into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops, from the UT Tower to St. Mary Cathedral, and the Texas Capitol is one of them. The other stops around it include the Peace Officers Memorial, the Texas African American History Memorial and the Tejano Monument on the Capitol grounds.
There is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Austin, for people who prefer a different format.
Play the Austin scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Austin →
Play the outdoor escape game in Austin →
Facts checked in October 2026.