Your eyes take in the seat of government for the U.S. state of Arizona, right here in Phoenix. This site includes the original State Capitol building, two buildings that house the legislative chambers for the Arizona State Legislature — the House of Representatives and the Senate — and the Executive Tower, which contains offices for the Governor. The core of what you see was originally built in 1900 as the capitol for the Arizona Territory; after Arizona was admitted into the Union in 1912 it became the state capitol.
The 1900 capitol is now maintained as the Arizona Capitol Museum, with a focus on the history and culture of Arizona. That museum stands on ground whose political story began decades earlier: the Arizona Territory was created on February 24, 1863, and although the first territorial legislature met in Prescott on September 26, 1864 in a rough, one-story log-house, the locus of government migrated and grew until this campus took shape. The 1900 capitol, now the Arizona Capitol Museum, sits between the two legislative chambers, and the Executive Tower still holds the Governor's offices today.