Certainly not peculiar to the US, on a much smaller scale the administrative centre of Co. Donegal in Ireland is the town of Lifford, just across the border from my parents’ town. The big town in the county Letterkenny. If it weren’t for desperate Northerners seeking cheap petrol and lotto tickets, there wouldn’t be much of Lifford at all.
I can see the advantages of having the State capital not the same as the largest city. I live in a state where that is not the case; the largest city is the capital. Quite often, city intrests and state intrests over lap way more than they should.
It’s a bear to get funds for highway repair outside the county the capital is in. The rest of the state can go to crap, but the capital freeway looks really nice. The university in the capital always gets more funds per student as well. People complain all the time, but it doesn’t help much.
Which state is that, if I may ask? Just curious.
Wasn’t another city the capital of PA after Philly but before Harrisburg (which was NOT a podunk town!) 
You might be referring to York, not as capital of Pennsylvania but where the Continnental Congress met for about nine months in 1777-78. Article by Cecil.
Yeah, that was it. Thanks, and I apoligize for my pointless post, I just like my town is all.
You’re from Harrisburg? I very fondly remember my Saturday in September hike there, of which I Posted, but you were not one of the respondents. My question in Posts 20 and 21 of that thread received no response, nor have I been able to lay it to rest on my own since then. Maybe you can help.
I thought it was to be closer to the new ranching interests that were springing up toward the West.
From a page with the heading Harrisburg Pennsylvania March 2002:
The state capitals though are all in the biggest city in the state.
No. The population of the Sierra Nevada Gold Country was higher than the Bay Area population in that time.
CALIFORNIA 1850
POPULATION EST. (Based upon the 1850 Census):
Bay Area 45,000
Gold Country 59,300
Sacramento/Valley 17,200
SoCal 5,800
BTW, here is my breakdown:
Bay Area Sac/Valley SoCal Gold Country
SF 34,000 Yolo 1,086 LA 3,530 Yuba 9,673
SClara 6,000 SJoa 3,647 SD 798 ED 20,057
CC 2,500 Sutter 3,444 SB 1,185 Cala 16,884
Mar 323 Sac 9,087 SLO 336 Tuo 8,351
Son 560 Marip 4,379
Napa 405
Sol 580
SCruz 643
TOT 45,011 17,264 5,849 59,344
Why SHOULD it be the biggest city? I mean, all it needs to be is a place that has buildings where the people who work for the state government can get there.
In fact, the largest city may already be congested enough to make the capital better suited to be located elsewhere.
That is what I kept asking earlier. The best thing I could think of is that the OP was conflating the idea of a working government city with the idea that capital status is a symbolic honor to be bestowed upon the biggest and most important city in the state. I am not accustomed to thinking of any U.S. capital of being anything but a place to conduct government business in the most fair geographic and political way. It sounds like you share that view and it causes the question itself to sound odd in its assumptions.
Agreed. And I will bring up my home state of West Virginia as an example. The OP includes it as one of the states where it’s largest city (Charleston) is the capital.
The original capital was in Wheeling which was at the time, the largest city in the state, but was moved to Charleston because it was in a central location (more convenient and fair for most legislators to travel)
In the intervening 100 years, because it is the capital, Charleston has GROWN to be the largest city in West Virginia, and I’m sure that similar activities have taken place in the states that have their largest cities as the capital.
But I agree with you, population size makes no sense when legislators are designating a place to meet to conduct government business.
It’s kind of like where four friends decide where to watch the game on Sunday. You may have a HDTV and a big living room, but the three of us don’t want to drive 60 miles to your house.
We pick a sports bar in a central location that is more convenient to all of us, and while no HDTV, we can still drink a few beers and cheer for our team…
And even if it should be, what do you do when another city becomes bigger?
And in my Texas History class, we were taught that they did it officially because of concerns over Houston’s vulnerability to attack, being so close to the sea.
Of course, the theory has also come up from time to time that Lamar did it just because he didn’t get on with Samuel Houston, though I’m not sure how much that may have actually played into anything.
As usual, Texans can talk your ear off about our colorful history on this topic as well.
Reflecting this fact, I believe that NH and Hartford were joint capitols until about this time.
Ah yes, Texas, a long tradition of batshit insane ladies with firearms. 