Ramsey County History – Spring 2012: “Who Built the Minnesota Capitol? John Rachač, Master Carpenter”

Who Built the Minnesota Capitol? John Rachač, Master Carpenter
Author: John Sielaff

The Minnesota State Capitol was constructed in St. Paul between 1895 and 1905. Because of the importance of this building to Minnesota history, considerable information exists about the competition to select an architect (the prominent Cass Gilbert was the winner), the cost of the building, and the methods used to build and furnish it. Surprisingly little is known, however, about the workers who built this magnificent building. This article is a biographical profile of one of those workers, the master carpenter John Rachač (1848–1936). He was an immigrant from Bohemia, who settled in the Czech community in the city in 1873. He worked on jobs small and big, including the capitol and the mansion that James J. Hill built on Summit Avenue.
PDF of Sielaff article