Under Spanish governors, California’s capital moved among towns between San Diego and Monterey. San Jose had been designated the capital when California gained statehood in 1850, and Vallejo and Benicia then each served before Sacramento became the home of the legislature in 1854. Sacramento secured its place as the permanent capital in 1860 when the legislature accepted an offer of four city blocks for the Capitol site, and by the end of that year construction had begun on a classic revival Capitol designed by architect M.E. Butler. The building was ready for the legislature’s first meeting in 1869, though construction continued until 1874, and repeated interior remodeling followed as the growing state demanded more space. Between 1948 and 1951, the East Wing was added for the governor’s suite and legislative offices, leaving the original structure known as the Old Capitol. The Capitol’s Roman-Corinthian facade and Renaissance-Revival chambers were intended to evoke Greek democracy and Roman republicanism, but remodeling in 1906 and later changes by the 1930s sacrificed much of that design to crowded office space. After the Old Capitol was found structurally unsafe in 1972, legislators chose restoration instead of replacement, and from 1976 to 1982 the building was rebuilt from the walls inward, with the exterior rehabilitated and the interior reconstructed to its appearance between 1900 and 1910. The work restored legislative chambers and offices and created exhibits on Capitol history and a nine-room museum showing executive offices around the turn of the century. Capitol Park, covering 40 acres, began to be beautified in 1869 with grading, Sacramento River silt, and the planting of 800 trees and flowering shrubs representing more than 200 native and exotic varieties in a Victorian layout. Over time, historic events and horticultural inspiration reshaped the grounds, including Memorial Grove with saplings from battle sites and a cactus garden inspired by California schoolchildren. By 1905 horticulturalists began identifying and labeling plants, establishing a practice that continues among the more than 450 varieties of trees, shrubs, and flowers that grow there.