Attempts to Move Florida's Capital in Tallahassee, Florida

Yes, several times, and every attempt has failed to move the capital out of Tallahassee.

The Florida Historic Capitol brochure, published by the museum the Florida Legislature manages, says the possibility of moving the capital arose periodically and that voters settled it in the election of November 6, 1900. Springtime Tallahassee, in its own account of its founding, says South and Central Florida legislators suggested moving the capitol to Orlando in 1967. The Florida Senate bill records show three later bills: HB 1335 in 2018, SB 492 in 2019 and SB 112 for the 2020 session, each of which died in committee.

The legal answer today sits in Article II, Section 2 of the Florida Constitution: the seat of government shall be the City of Tallahassee, in Leon County, where the offices of the governor, lieutenant governor, cabinet members and the supreme court shall be maintained and the sessions of the legislature shall be held. No official source fetched for this page keeps a single numbered count of attempts, so this page lists only the attempts the official records and the festival's own history document.

Tallahassee was chosen in 1824 mainly because it sat midway between St. Augustine and Pensacola, the two principal cities of the new Florida territory.

The Florida Department of State says that in the early 1820s legislators moved government business between St. Augustine and Pensacola for alternating sessions, a hazardous trip that took almost twenty days. Tallahassee was picked as the midway point, and three log cabins served as the first Capitol. The Historic Capitol audio tour adds that two commissioners were selected to find a site roughly equal in distance between the two old colonial capitals.

That same central location became the later complaint about Tallahassee. A spot halfway between two north Florida towns stopped looking central once Florida's population moved south. The museum's audio tour notes that Florida had roughly half a million residents in 1900 and 16 million by 2000, the fourth largest in the country, and the 2018 to 2020 relocation bills all asked about the ease and cost of travel to the capital.

In the election of November 6, 1900, Florida voters reconfirmed Tallahassee as the capital by a wide margin over Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Ocala.

The Historic Capitol brochure says the question by the turn of the century was tied to a need for more space for government business, and that it was decided to place the decision in the hands of the voters. Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Ocala were the alternate sites. The brochure does not give vote totals, and none of the official sources fetched for this page state them.

The vote produced the building that still stands at the center of the Capitol complex in Tallahassee. After the election, according to the brochure, the Legislature felt justified in appropriating $75,000 for the renovation and expansion of its statehouse. The museum's audio tour says Governor William Jennings received the $75,000 in 1902 and hired a young architect, who added two wings, doubling the working area, plus a copper dome with a cupola, granite front steps and a metal relief of the State Seal. The brochure spells the architect Frank Pierce Milburn; the audio tour spells him Millburn.

The Department of State notes that 1902 was the last time Florida's government operated under one roof in the Tallahassee Capitol, and that by 1911 state government was moving to other buildings. Further additions came in 1923, 1936 and 1947.

In 1967 South and Central Florida legislators suggested moving the capitol to Orlando, and Tallahassee leaders answered with a spring festival, according to Springtime Tallahassee's own history.

Springtime Tallahassee says 1967 brought Florida's first Legislature based on reapportionment, that local business and civic leaders met behind closed doors to plan how to keep the capital in Tallahassee, and that the legislative delegation asked for help. At a Tallahassee Real Estate Association luncheon in May 1967 the speaker suggested a festival in the spring, and by the fall more than 20 groups were planning the first annual Spring Festival, held March to April 1968.

The organization says Springtime Tallahassee, Inc. was chartered as an organization dedicated to keeping Tallahassee as the state's capital, and it credits the festival with the Legislature's choice to keep the capital there. That is the group's own account of its founding; no official legislative record fetched for this page describes the 1967 proposal.

Yes; the plan for Tallahassee's 22-story Capitol tower called for tearing down the Historic Capitol, and public outcry saved it.

The Department of State says the Legislature authorized money in 1972 for a new Capitol Complex with House and Senate chambers and offices and a twenty-two-story executive office building, completed in 1977. In 1978, it adds, Governor Reubin Askew and House Speaker Donald Tucker favored outright demolition of the old Capitol. The museum's audio tour says architect Edward Durell Stone's tower design included demolishing the Historic Capitol and replacing it with a landscaped area.

Because the two buildings almost touched, the Historic Capitol was restored to its 1902 version, with its east, west, north and south wings removed, between 1978 and 1982 at a cost of $7 million, according to the audio tour. The Historic Capitol museum now shows the restored 1902 Governor's office and the House, Senate and Supreme Court chambers, with more than 250 artifacts in 21 rooms. It is open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Sundays and holidays from noon to 4:30 p.m., and closed Thanksgiving Day and Christmas.

Three bills filed in Tallahassee from 2018 to 2020 asked for studies of moving the capital, and none got a committee vote.

The Florida Senate bill pages and bill texts record the three Tallahassee relocation bills this way:

The filed text of HB 1335 did not name a destination. It told the task force to weigh ease of public travel to the capital, legislators' travel costs during committee weeks and session, the cost of relocation and the economic impact on the city of Tallahassee and Leon County, and barred it from considering relocation of state agencies. The 2019 text and the 2020 text included the Supreme Court in the study, along with the changes to state law a move would require.

A permanent move would take a constitutional amendment, because the Florida Constitution itself names Tallahassee and Leon County as the seat of government.

The 2018 bill spelled out that step for Tallahassee directly. Under the filed text of HB 1335, if the Legislature decided after the task force report that relocation was appropriate, it would have to propose a constitutional amendment by joint resolution to carry it out. The bill would have taken effect July 1, 2018, had it passed.

The Constitution allows only a temporary move. Article II, Section 2 provides that in time of invasion or grave emergency, the governor by proclamation may, for the period of the emergency, transfer the seat of government to another place. Short of that, the Capitol, the Supreme Court and the Legislature's sessions stay in Tallahassee.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, by rereading Article II of the Florida Constitution, the Florida Senate records and filed texts for HB 1335, SB 492 and SB 112, the Department of State Capitol history, three Florida Historic Capitol Museum pages and the Springtime Tallahassee history page.