What it is
The Arizona Capitol Museum is the original capitol of Arizona, the four-story granite and tufa building at the west end of Washington Street that the territorial government took over on May 1, 1900, and the legislature first met in on January 21, 1901. James Riely Gordon, the Texas architect famous for his county courthouses, won the design competition, and contractor Tom Lovell built it from Arizona materials, granite, tufa stone and copper for the dome, though budget cuts shrank Gordon’s planned dome to a modest one. On top, a weather vane modeled on the Winged Victory of Samothrace turns with the wind, and the rotunda’s skylight was arranged so you can see her from inside. The legislature moved to its new chambers on either side in 1960 and the governor to the Executive Tower behind in 1974, and the old building became a museum of the state’s government and history, run by the Arizona State Library. Admission is free, and always has been.
Inside: the restored territorial chambers and offices upstairs, the rotunda, rotating exhibits on the first two floors, and the USS Arizona collection, the battleship’s silver punchbowl service that survived Pearl Harbor because it had been sent ashore for cleaning, a flag that flew on the ship, a model, and a piece of the superstructure.
Why leave Scottsdale for it
Because the building is where the decisions that most affect Scottsdale get made, and this site spends a good deal of ink on that fact. Our Arizona legislature page explains how the state overrules the city on short-term rentals, taxes and development; the state preemption page explains the legal machinery; the Arizona constitution page explains the 1910 document that set it all up. Standing in the room where the territorial legislature met in 1901 makes all of it concrete. It is also free, which nothing on our museums and attractions list can say, and the USS Arizona room is worth the drive by itself.
The practical version
Twenty-eight minutes from Old Town, free parking, free admission. Monday through Friday 9 to 4; Saturday 10 to 2 from September through May; closed Sunday. Self-guided with a map, or the free walk-in tour at 2 PM on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in season. Sixty to ninety minutes. The light rail does not reach the Capitol.
When to go
Weekdays, and ideally when the legislature is in session, January into late spring, when the complex is alive, the galleries in the modern House and Senate buildings are open to the public, and the museum’s tours run. The 2 PM Monday, Wednesday and Friday tours are the best version of the visit. Saturdays from September through May are quieter and work for families. Summer is weekdays only and the plaza outside is brutal by noon, though the building itself is cool and the exhibits do not care about the season. The December 7 anniversary brings ceremonies at the USS Arizona anchor in the plaza outside.
What to see
Start in the rotunda and look up through the skylight at Winged Victory. Take the stairs to the restored chambers: the old House and Senate rooms and the governor’s office are furnished as they were in the early statehood years, and the guides, if you catch a tour, will tell you which desks belonged to whom. The USS Arizona collection is the museum’s heart and the room most visitors remember: the silver service, the flag, the model. The first- and second-floor galleries rotate; in 2026 the second floor holds an America 250 exhibit, with a brick from Independence Hall among the artifacts, through December, and the first floor an exhibit on Arizona’s Holocaust survivors produced with the Arizona Jewish Historical Society. Then walk the Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza outside, where the USS Arizona’s anchor and a mast, and two dozen other memorials, stand in the lawn.
With kids
A good one, for free, for about an hour. The dome and the weather vane, the battleship model and the old chambers hold a school-age child’s attention, and the exhibits are written for school groups, who are the museum’s main audience on weekdays. Younger than six is a stretch.
The neighborhood
The Capitol Mall is government: the House and Senate buildings flanking the museum, the Executive Tower behind, state agencies along Washington and Jefferson, and the long memorial plaza stretching east. It empties at five. For food and drink afterward, head a mile east to downtown proper, where The Van Buren and the Grand Avenue arts strip are the nearest reasons to stop.
The story
Arizona Territory moved its capital from Prescott to Phoenix in 1889 and spent a decade meeting in rented rooms before it had a building of its own. The design competition went to James Riely Gordon, who had made his name with the Romanesque courthouses of Texas, and he drew a four-story capitol in local granite and tufa with a tall dome; by the time the money ran short the dome had shrunk to the one you see, topped with a weather vane modeled on the Winged Victory of Samothrace. Contractor Tom Lovell finished the building in 1900, the territorial government took possession on May 1, the legislature met there for the first time on January 21, 1901, and the dedication followed in February. Eleven years later, on February 14, 1912, Arizona became the 48th state, and the building became the state capitol, with the governor on the ground floor and the two legislative chambers above.
It was too small almost immediately. Wings were added, then the separate House and Senate buildings opened on either side in 1960 and the legislature moved out; the governor followed in 1974 when the Executive Tower went up behind. The old building was later restored and reopened as the Capitol Museum, with the territorial-era rooms furnished as they had been, and the state’s USS Arizona relics, which had been held since the war, found their permanent home here. The museum is run by the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, and its programs have grown to include the rotating exhibits that now fill the first two floors.
The Scottsdale connection
No body of government has more say over Scottsdale than the one that met in this building and the two beside it. The legislature set the rules on short-term rentals that reshaped Old Town’s neighborhoods, capped what the city can tax, and in 2025 passed the law that cleared the Axon headquarters and cancelled the referendum Scottsdale voters had petitioned for; our Arizona legislature page tells that story and our state preemption page explains the doctrine behind it. Scottsdale keeps a government-relations staff working these buildings for exactly that reason. The 1910 constitutional convention that wrote the document all of this rests on, covered on our Arizona constitution page, met in this building too.
Getting there
From Old Town, west on McDowell Road to 7th Avenue, south to Washington Street, then west about a mile; the old capitol is the domed building at the end of the plaza between the modern House and Senate, with free visitor parking in the lots around the complex off 17th and 19th Avenues. Washington and Jefferson are a one-way pair through the Capitol Mall, so follow the signs. The light rail does not reach the Capitol, so this is a car or rideshare trip; our getting around note has the rideshare math.