Was front of the Texas capitol changed to face south during the civil war? How does the size of the Texas capitol compare to the US capitol?
The current Texas state capital building was constructed beginning in 1882 so I don’t think the Civil War bit is true.
In terms of square footage it’s the second largest capital building, behind the national one in DC, however it’s a little bit taller than the national capitol building. And the whole thing is made out of rose-colored granite, there’s jillions of tons of the stuff around Austin. I visited a few years ago and it’s quite impressive.
Wow, that’s a beautiful building. Here are some more images, courtesy Google Image Search Thingamajig:
http://filemon72.bei.t-online.de/texas-capitol1.jpg
http://www.research.ibm.com/acas/graphics/capitol.jpg
http://www.tspb.state.tx.us/SPB/Capitol/Grounds/Images/capitol.jpg
The previous capitol (I beleive in use at a the time of the Civil War) was on the SW corner of 12th and Congress (now a public garden, across the street from the new one). It seems to have faced east, as near as I can recall.