History and Maintenance of Iowa Capitol Building’s Golden Dome

Iowa’s capitol building with its gold covered dome is the largest gilded dome in the United States. Learn more about it in this segment is from Iowa PBS’s This Old Statehouse documentary.

Probably the most distinctive of the capitol’s exterior features is its gold covered dome. Rising to a height of two hundred seventy-five feet, the steel, brick and copper hemispherical roof is one of the largest gilded domes in the United States.

Like any material that’s exposed to wind and rain though, the gold eventually erodes and every 30 years or so it has to be replaced. It was first gilded in 1883 at a cost of three thousand, seven hundred dollars. It’s most recent coating had been applied in 1965, when 80 thousand dollars’ worth was bonded onto the dome. By the time the last bit of gold had been coaxed into place in 1999, one hundred seventy thousand dollars’ worth of 23 carat gold leaf had given the capitol back its original luster.