05/17/2026
On this day in 1934 Cass Gilbert, architect of the Minnesota State Capitol, passed away in Brockenhurst, England. He was 74 years old.
Cass Gilbert was born in Ohio in 1859, but moved to Minnesota with his family nine years later when his father was working as a surveyor in St. Paul. He finished his schooling and apprenticed as a draftsman in the office of a local architect. He went on to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and did a “Grand Tour” of Europe to further his knowledge and skill.
In 1882 Gilbert returned to St. Paul and worked locally, completing his first residential project in 1883.
In 1895 his design submission was selected for the new State Capitol project. This gained him national recognition and he went on to design many prominent structures including two other state capitols, the Woolworth Building in New York City, and the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington D.C.
Cass Gilbert is memorialized in the Minnesota capitol building with a bust on the first floor, but artist Edwin Blashfield also gave him a nod in a more hidden corner. In the Senate Chamber there is a mural called Minnesota Granary of the World. On the left side, peaking out from behind the allegorical figures, you can see the profiles of Cass Gilbert and Channing Seabury, the vice president of the Board of State Capitol Commissioners.
Images:
Cass Gilbert, 1880. Minnesota Historical Society.
Minnesota Granary of the World, painted by Edwin Blashfield, 1905.
