Boise, explained
Access Boise Editorial Team 
The Ada County Courthouse is the government building in downtown Boise that houses Idaho’s Fourth Judicial District Court for Ada County, along with several county offices. It is a working courthouse, not a museum, but its public lobby and atrium contain a collection of commissioned artwork, including murals, installed as part of the building’s construction. … Read more
Capitol Boulevard is downtown Boise’s principal north-south street. It runs in a nearly straight line from the Idaho State Capitol at its northern end, south across the Boise River, to the edge of the Boise State University campus. It is the closest thing the city has to a ceremonial spine, connecting the seat of Idaho’s … Read more
The Grove Plaza is downtown Boise’s central public square — a brick-paved, gently terraced open space with a fountain at its center, built by the city as a gathering point for events. It hosts a rotating calendar of concerts, markets, festivals, and a seasonal ice rink, and functions much like a town square for the … Read more
Albertsons Stadium is the football stadium of Boise State University, sitting on the university’s campus just south of downtown Boise along the Boise River. Its playing surface is blue rather than green because the university chose to make the color part of its identity when it installed synthetic turf in 1986 — a decision that … Read more
What is the Morrison Center? The Morrison Center for the Performing Arts is Idaho’s largest performing arts facility, built on the campus of Boise State University and owned and operated by the university. It opened in 1984 and functions as the primary home for opera, ballet, orchestral music and touring theatrical productions in the Boise … Read more
The Egyptian Theatre is a 1927 movie palace on Main Street in downtown Boise, built in the Egyptian Revival style that swept American architecture after the 1922 discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb. It is Egyptian because its owners deliberately borrowed that imagery — columns, winged sun disks, sphinxes — to sell a sense of exotic … Read more
The Boise Depot is the former Union Pacific passenger station built in 1925 on the bench south of downtown, known for its Spanish Mission Revival bell tower. Platt Gardens is the formal, city-maintained lawn and garden that surrounds the depot building and terrace. Together they form one landmark site: a historic building set inside a … Read more
Freak Alley Gallery is an open-air corridor of large-scale murals in downtown Boise, painted directly onto the brick and concrete walls of the buildings that back onto it. It is not a museum with a door or a ticket desk — it is a public alley, free to enter at any hour, with dozens of … Read more
Can you go inside the Idaho State Capitol? Yes. The Idaho State Capitol is a working government building open to the public free of charge during business hours, and its rotunda, four legislative wings, and public galleries can all be walked through on a self-guided basis. There is no admission fee and no requirement to … Read more
The Idaho State Capitol is the seat of Idaho’s state government in downtown Boise, a domed sandstone building completed in stages between 1905 and 1920. It is heated by geothermal water because Boise sits above a natural hot-water aquifer, and the state taps that heat directly through a dedicated well and pipe system rather than … Read more
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