The Moniteau County Courthouse, completed in 1868, is a classic revival-styled building distinguished by a domed octagonal cupola, a domed semicircular portico supported by curved brick columns of Corinthian order, twenty-four-paned windows, and a fanlighted front door. The area that is now Moniteau County was part of St. Louis County when Missouri Territory was formed in 1812, then became part of Howard County in 1816, Cooper County in 1818, and Cole County in 1820 before being organized as Moniteau County in 1845. The name Moniteau is a French derivation of the Indian word Manitou, meaning the Great Spirit.