When Spanish governors ruled the California territory, its capitol moved from town to town between San Diego and Monterey. San Jose had already been designated the capitol by the time California was granted statehood in 1850, and in the next four years Vallejo and Benicia also served in that role. In 1854 Sacramento became the home of the legislature, and its claim as the permanent capitol was secured in 1860 when the legislature accepted an offer of four city blocks for the site. By the end of that year, work had begun on a Capitol building designed by architect M.F. Butler in the classical revival style, measuring 320 feet long, 164 feet wide, and 120 feet high. The new Capitol was ready for the legislature’s first meeting in 1869, though construction continued until 1874, and repeated interior remodeling later sought to meet the needs of a rapidly growing state. Between 1918 and 1951, the East Wing was added for the governor’s suite and other legislative offices, and the original structure became known as the Old Capitol. In 1906, the interior underwent its first remodeling, and by the 1930s successive changes had turned it into a collection of small offices. After the Old Capitol was found structurally unsafe in 1972, legislators chose restoration rather than replacement, and between 1976 and 1982 the building was rebuilt from the walls in, with the exterior rehabilitated and the interior reconstructed as it had appeared between 1900 and 1910. The restoration revived crafts such as mural painting, plaster decoration, mosaic tile setting, and metal work, and produced restored legislative chambers, offices, an exhibit on Capitol history, and a nine-room museum showing executive offices as they appeared around the turn of the century. Capitol Park, covering 40 acres, began its beautification in 1869 with grading, Sacramento River silt, and the planting of eight hundred trees and flowering shrubs representing more than two hundred native and exotic varieties. Laid out in Victorian style, the park was later shaped by events and horticultural efforts, including a Memorial Grove with saplings from Civil War battle sites and a cactus garden inspired by California schoolchildren. By 1905 horticulturalists began identifying and labeling plants, a practice that continues with information on more than 450 varieties of trees, shrubs, and flowers that thrive in Sacramento’s rich soil and warm climate.