The new state capitol of Mississippi was completed in July 1903, after almost three years of construction on the site of the old state penitentiary (which was built in 1840 by Old Capitol architect William Nichols). It cost $1,093,641 and was funded mainly through $1,000,000 in back taxes paid by the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley and the Gulf and Ship Island Railroads. State officials moved into the new building in September 1903 and legislators met there for the first time in January 1904. Here the New Capitol is shown after construction was completed but before grounds work had begun.
The New Capitol was designed by architect Theodore C. Link (1850-1923) of St. Louis, pictured at left. Link also oversaw the renovation of the Old Capitol into a state office building in 1916-1917.
Digital Archives related to the New Capitol:
Series 637: Minutes, 1900-1904 (of the State House Commission)
This body was charged with planning and overseeing the construction of the New Capitol.
Series 317: Photographs of New Capitol (State House Commission)
This album shows photographs of the construction of the New Capitol.
Source: John Ray Skates, Mississippi’s Old Capitol: Biography of a Building (Jackson: Mississippi Department of Archives and History, 1990), 125-29.