JEFFERSON CITY (legally and officially the City of Jeffer son), the capital of Missouri, U.S.A., and the county seat of Cole county, on the south bank of the Missouri river, near the centre of the State. It is on Federal highways so, 54 and 63 ; is served by the Chicago and Alton, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas, and the Missouri Pacific railways, and by motor bus lines as far as Saint Louis, Springfield and Kansas City; it has an airport. The popula tion was 14,490 in 1920 (13.6% negroes) and was 21,596 by the Federal census of 1930. The magnificent State capitol, erected between 1911 and 1918 at a cost of $5,000,000, dominates the scene from a bluff above the river. At the south entrance is a bronze statue of Thomas Jefferson by J. E. Fraser, and in the park stands Karl Bitter's group representing the signing of the Louisiana purchase treaty. There are decorative paintings and sculpture by Frank Brangwyn, Gari Melchers, Charles Hoffbauer, Henry Reuterdahl, A. Stirling Calder, Hermon A. MacNeil and many other artists. In the dome (238ft. high) is the radio broadcasting station of the State bureau of markets. The supreme court build ing, facing the capitol, houses one of the best law libraries in the country. The State penitentiary and the women's prison farm
are located here. Lincoln university for negroes, a State institu tion since 1879, was founded in 1866 by two regiments of negro infantry on their discharge from the Union army. The city has large railroad shops and various other manufacturing industries with an aggregate output in 1925 valued at $10,896,175.
The original Constitution of Missouri prescribed that the capital should be on the Missouri river, within 40m. of the mouth of the Osage. The site was selected by a commission, and the bill was signed by the first governor of the State on New Year's eve, 1821. In 1822 the town was laid out. The first State-house, built in 1826, was burned in 1837. A larger building was begun the same year, completed in 1842, enlarged in 1887, and in its turn destroyed by fire in 1911. The present structure was erected under the direction of a bipartisan commission. Jefferson City became the county seat in 1828, and was chartered as a city in 1839. In June, 1861, it was occupied by Union forces, and in Sept.–Oct. 5864, it was threatened by Confederate troops under Gen. Sterling Price.