Colorado was not yet ten years old when the first effort got under way to erect a statehouse. Still a territory, Colorado had already had two other capital cities when the Seventh Legislative Assembly on December 9, 1867, made Denver the official capital city. Although Golden had been the official capital for several years, most of the government business was transacted in Denver and popular convenience led to officially moving the capital there. In Denver the territorial offices were scattered about town and the legislature met where it could.

The Act of 1867 authorized Governor Hunt to appoint a three-man Capitol Commission whose first task was that of securing a donation of ten acres of land suitable as a site for a capitol building. Almost immediately a prominent and successful real estate man, Mr. Henry C. Brown, offered ten acres at East Colfax and Lincoln streets. The offer was readily accepted as it occupied a sloping hillside with a commanding view of the city and the mountains to the west. Mr. Brown, who came to Colorado from Missouri in 1860 and who later was to build the famous Brown Palace Hotel, gave the valuable location to the state with the expectation that it would enhance the value of adjacent land which he also owned. This land, bounded by Colfax on the north, Fourteenth Avenue on the south, Lincoln on the west, and Grant on the east, was deeded to the State of Colorado on January 11, 1868.