Texas State Capitol: Free Tour, Then a Bar in a 1916 Building
A free 40 minute tour under a dome that stands 14 feet above the one in Washington, then a beer in a grocery store from 1916, all inside one mile on foot.
🗺️ Capitol to Twelfth and Lamar
🏛️ A dome taller than the U.S. Capitol
Guides meet in the south foyer of the 1888 building, just inside the main doors, and leave every 15 to 30 minutes. Tours run from 9:00 AM to a last departure at 4:15 PM Monday through Saturday, and from 12:00 PM on Sunday. Forty minutes covers the rotunda and the House and Senate chambers. Capitol tours are free, and groups larger than ten are asked to call ahead. The building closes at 8:00 PM.
🍺 Fifteen minutes west on foot
The Enfield Grocery Store opened on this corner in 1916, modeled on German public houses, and beer has been poured here since 1933, when the name changed and the air conditioning went in. Local lore holds that the upstairs room ran as a bar, casino, and brothel through Prohibition, and that a resident ghost named Emily still plays pranks up there. Order a beer or a plate from the happy hour list, weekdays from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM. The upstairs room has no step free access.
🅿️ Park free, then pay for one drink
Parking in the Capitol Visitors Garage at 1201 San Jacinto Boulevard is free for the first two hours on weekdays, then a dollar every half hour up to twelve dollars; weekends are sometimes free but can carry pre-paid event fees up to twenty five dollars, so read the board at the entrance. Attendant hours run 7:00 AM to 6:30 PM Monday through Friday, which leaves time to walk west to The Tavern at the corner of West 12th Street and Lamar Boulevard. Both stops are indoors, though the walk between them is out in the open.
