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Capital of Missouri · Cole County · capital since 1826 · 38.6°N 92.2°W

Jefferson City, Missouri

Jefferson City was created by the Missouri constitution to be a capital near the middle of the state on the Missouri River, and the legislature moved there in 1826. Kansas City and St. Louis, on either side, are each more than ten times larger.

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Jefferson City is in central Missouri, on the south bank of the Missouri River. Press Major cities to see Kansas City and St. Louis at roughly equal distances east and west.

Where Jefferson City is

Jefferson City is the seat of Cole County, at 38.58°N, 92.17°W, on the south bank of the Missouri River a little east of the center of the state. The capitol stands on a bluff directly above the river. The Ozark uplands begin south of the city, and the flat river bottoms lie across on the north bank. Columbia and the University of Missouri are about 30 miles north on US 54 and Interstate 70. Jefferson City is on Central Time.

How it became the capital

St. Louis was the capital of Missouri Territory, and St. Charles, just up the Missouri from it, served as the temporary state capital from admission in 1821. The 1820 constitution required a permanent capital on the Missouri within 40 miles of the mouth of the Osage River. Commissioners selected a site in 1821 and named it for Thomas Jefferson, then still living. The legislature met there for the first time in November 1826, when the town had a few dozen buildings.

Population

Jefferson City had 43,228 residents in 2020, the 15th-largest city in Missouri. Kansas City, the largest, had 508,090, and St. Louis about 301,000. The Jefferson City metropolitan area, covering Cole, Callaway, Moniteau and Osage counties, has about 150,000 people out of a state total of 6,154,913.

The capitol

The Missouri State Capitol is the third on the site; the first two burned, the second after a lightning strike in 1911. The present building was designed by the New York firm Tracy and Swartwout and completed in 1917. It is built of Carthage limestone from southwestern Missouri, with a dome 238 ft high topped by a bronze figure of Ceres. The House lounge holds the Social History of Missouri murals painted by Thomas Hart Benton in 1936, which show the state's history without omitting its slave trade and lynchings, and caused a controversy when unveiled.

Distances to other cities

CityDirectionRoad distance
St. Louis, MOeastabout 130 mi
Kansas City, MOwestabout 160 mi
Springfield, MOsouthwestabout 135 mi

Jefferson City is one of four state capitals not served by an interstate highway, along with Dover, Pierre and Juneau. See the Ozarks map for the highlands south of the city.

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