360° CAPITOL TOUR
Free online tour available 24/7 year round in English, Spanish and Mandarin
A CAPITOL IDEA
Anyone with an internet connection can tour the Oregon State Capitol online.
Purchasers of Pacific Wonderland license plates and Capitol Foundation donors helped create and continue to fund enhancements to the 360-degree Capitol tour. This immersive educational tool provides noteworthy facts about the building, artifacts and objects found at the Capitol and the surrounding grounds using photos, videos, downloadable PDFs and narrated audio.
The Capitol Visitor Services department developed the virtual tour and its messaging to offer expanded services to visitors. Like you, they recognize the need for interpretation and translation of the legislative process and the Capitol’s history to provide meaningful explanations and context for visitors with limited English proficiency. The virtual tour is currently available in English, Spanish and Mandarin.
The virtual Capitol tour is part of the award-winning Capitol History Gateway program, a project the Capitol Foundation helps fund.
The Capitol is groundbreaking in their use of this technology; it truly shows their commitment to inclusion, and we’re thrilled to help overcome some of their visitors’ accessibility challenges and work together to bring this vision to life.
CALLING ALL FOURTH GRADERS AND TEACHERS!
Visitor Services developed a tour with thematic elements appropriate for school-aged children. Since civics lessons are introduced in fourth grade and fourth-grade audiences receive the bulk of the school tours given, they wrote the student version of the tour with that audience in mind.
This free online educational experience helps teachers prepare students, encourages families to discover new interests. It allows people near and far to learn about the story of the Capitol and the legislative process.
The student version of the virtual tour offers a tool to educators trying to enhance distance learning during the pandemic. The Visitor Services team already launched a pilot program using this tool to deliver guided virtual tours to classes throughout Oregon.
Lessons aligned with Oregon’s teaching standards are available to support the students’ visit.
VISIT THE CAPITOL
To access the most current information about online and in-person Capitol tours and events, visit the Oregon State Capitol website or call Capitol Visitor Services staff at 503-986-1388.
As part of ongoing efforts to make seismic and accessibility improvements at your Capitol, a portion of the building will be open to authorized construction personnel only starting July 1, 2022. This affects the historic portion of the building (Rotunda, Galleria, House and Senate Chambers, Governor’s Ceremonial Office).