Fast Facts:
Other sources of information
about Jefferson City:
City of Jefferson :
www.jeffcitymo.org
County of Cole:
www.colecounty.org
Convention & Visitors Bureau:
www.visitjeffersoncity.com
For an informational packet about
Missouri and its history:
Secretary of State:
www.sos.mo.gov/archives
Population:
Jefferson City
41,000
Largest Employers:
State Government
Scholastic, Inc.
Capital Region Medical Center
Jefferson City Public Schools
Central Bancompany
St. Mary’s Health Center
City of Jefferson
ABB
Unilever
Jefferson City is the home to
state government and county
government.
There are more
than 65 historic sites in Jefferson
City including a famous state penitentiary.
Missouri’s
Capital City
Named for Thomas Jefferson, the
third president of the United States, the
Jefferson City area was a part of the
Secretary of State Publications
Louisiana Purchase.
P.O. Box 1767
Jefferson City is
located on the Missouri River near the
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce
213 Adams Street
P.O. Box 776
Jefferson City, MO 65102-0776
Phone: 573-634-3616
Fax: 573-634-3805
Web: www.jeffersoncitychamber.org
geographic center of the state and is
dominated by a beautiful domed Capitol,
rising from a bluff overlooking the Missouri River.
Lewis and Clark passed
beneath that bluff on their historic expedition 200 years ago.
A brief look at the history of the
How the City of Jefferson
state capital:
became the State Capital
1803
Thomas Jefferson, buys the
When the Missouri Territory was organized
Louisiana Territory from France
in 1812, St. Louis was the seat of government.
St. Charles served as the capital until Jefferson
1804
City was chosen as the capital in 1821. At that
become Jefferson City
located in the wilderness and was known as
State leaders chose the
site because of an agreement that the capital
By night or by day, the Capitol is
had to be within 40 miles of the confluence of
the focal
the Osage River.
City skyline. In many cities, the capi-
point
of
the
Jefferson
after
tol building is hidden by skyscrapers,
President Thomas Jefferson, the little town
but not so in Jefferson City due to an
struggled.
Prosperity didn’t come quickly or
ordinance that states no structure
easily, and many wondered if the city should
may be built higher than the State
Renamed
the “City of Jefferson”
remain the capital.
The city survived the Civil War, a plot to
Capitol.
poison all the citizens of the city, several
The present capitol building was
attempts to relocate the capitol to Sedalia, and
modeled after the Nation’s Capitol
two capitol buildings burning to the ground.
and
Missouri was the first slave state to free its
quarried in Carthage, Missouri. Two
slaves prior to the Emancipation Proclamation.
is made of Carthage Marble
hundred sixty feet above the ground,
The current Capitol was completed in 1917
Ceres, the Roman goddess of agri-
and is the third State Capitol building built in
culture, sits atop the Capitol and
Jefferson City. The first two capitol buildings
looks down upon Jefferson City.
were destroyed by fire — the first in 1837 and
the second in 1911.
The Corps of Discovery (Lewis &
Clark) camps near what would later
time, the city was little more than a trading post
Lohman’s Landing.
The United States, under President
1806
Lewis & Clark return journey
1821
Missouri admitted into the Union
Jefferson City site chosen for the
state capital
1826
State Government moves to
Jefferson City
1836
Missouri State Penitentiary opens
1837
First Capitol burns down
1849
Cholera epidemic
1855
Pacific Railroad comes to city
1861
Federal troops seize the capitol
1911
Second state capitol building burns
1917
Third capitol building completed