State House-Fillmore, Utah P.6

Drawing of Utah Territorial Statehouse in Fillmore, Utah. The first Territorial Legislature of 1851 selected Fillmore as a central location for the state capitol. Truman O. Angell, church architect, designed a three-winged, domed state house. The completed south wing was first occupied by the legislature in the 1855-1856 session. The building was never finished, though the one wing still stands. Finding the new capitol too far removed from the center of population, the same legislature returned the government to Salt Lake City (150 miles away). One subsequent legislature trekked to Fillmore to fulfill legal requirements, but immediately adjourned to Salt Lake City. In succeeding years, the building was used as a county court house, as a school and even as a jail. The building was restored in 1928 and was dedicated by Governor George H. Dern as a state museum (D.U.P.) for pioneer relics on July 24, 1930. In the early 1930's, Carlos John Anderson (Andreson) received a commission to record early life in Utah in twenty-four sketches. These renderings are primarily of historical buildings and are all still owned by the State of Utah in what is known as the WPA Collection.