Paola, KS
What Paola is actually like
The area was resettled between 1827 and 1832 by the Kaskaskia, Peoria, Wea, and Piankeshaw peoples after their removal from the Midwest, in a settlement known as Peoria Village. In 1852, the Italian Jesuit priest Fr. Paul Ponziglione renamed the village Paola, after a town on the Calabrian coast of Italy; Baptiste Peoria, a French-Indian leader, and his wife Mary Ann Isaacs conveyed the land that is now the town square to the Paola Town Company, which formally incorporated on August 23, 1855 Wikipedia: Paola, Kansas, City of Paola: History of Paola.
Paola has a couple of specific, well-documented 19th-century firsts: it became the first town west of the Mississippi River to use natural gas commercially, in 1882, and the first oil well west of the Mississippi was discovered nearby in 1888 City of Paola: History of Paola. Confederate guerrilla leader William Quantrill nearly attacked the town in 1863 during his retreat from the Lawrence Massacre Legends of Kansas: Paola, Kansas.
The 2020 census recorded 5,768 residents, with a 2021 estimate of 5,786 Wikipedia: Paola, Kansas, making Paola the smallest of the five places in this outer-MSA cluster by a wide margin.
Home values in Paola
The median sale price of a home in Paola, KS was $255,831 (about $256K) over the three months ending August 2026, down 5.2% from the same period a year earlier Redfin: Paola, KS Housing Market.
Evenings and weekends
Downtown Paola's Park Square -- with its 1913 gazebo, fountain, and landscaped grounds -- is the heart of local life, ringed by locally owned shops, restaurants, and the 1898 Miami County Courthouse Kansas Country Living: Paola, Kansas. The signature annual event is the Paola Roots Festival, a two-day music and arts festival on Park Square each August featuring national, regional, and local musicians, a state-level barbecue competition, arts and crafts vendors, and children's activities -- it marked its 37th year in 2026 Paola Roots Festival.
Getting around
There is no regional bus or rail service in Paola -- it's about an hour's drive from downtown Kansas City via US-169, and a car is necessary for essentially every trip, in town or into the metro.
Paola FAQ
Is Paola, Kansas the Miami County seat?
Yes -- Paola has been the Miami County seat since its founding.
How far is Paola from downtown Kansas City?
About 50 miles south, roughly an hour's drive via US-169 -- the farthest of this cluster's five towns from the urban core.
What is the Paola Roots Festival?
An annual two-day music, arts, and barbecue festival on downtown Paola's Park Square each August, which reached its 37th year in 2026.
Does Paola, Kansas have a hospital?
Yes -- Miami County Medical Center, part of The University of Kansas Health System, is located in Paola.
Nearby alternatives*We're not ranking these — every place has real trade-offs, and which ones matter is up to you.
Leavenworth
The other Kansas-side outer-county seat in this cluster, on the opposite (north) side of the metro.
Harrisonville
The nearer of the two Missouri-side small cities in this cluster geographically, though still roughly 40+ miles away across the state line.
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