History Of The Governor Mansions (war, general, 1950's, state)

[Six Foot Three]

Well since most of the governors are being swore in this week and next i was thinking about the different mansions that they reside at within their respective state's and so tell us about the history of the mansion in your state or others if you wish. Have you ever visited any of them? Do you have any photo's? What's their style i.e. Plantation in the south, Ranch out west, or Victorian up north etc.? Any past famous governors,visitors or events that had happened there? Are any of them haunted? etc ...

[NJGOAT]

NJ's Governor's mansion is an interesting piece. It is unique in that it is only one of three governor's residences not located in the actual state capitol. NJ never even had a mansion until 1954 when the Morven estate was donated by Governor Edge. Morven was built by Richard Stockton in 1754. Stockton was a statesman and signer of the Decleration of Independence. The Stockton's owned the home until 1932 when it was leased to Robert Wood Johnson II the chairman of Johnson and Johnson. In 1944 Edge purchased the property from the Stockton's and then donated it to the state in 1954.

Morven was used as the governors mansion until 1982 when the current mansion, Drumthwacket became the official residence. Drumthwacket was built in 1835 by Chalres Smith Olden who made his fortune in the mercantile trade. He was also the Treasurer of the College of New Jersey (now called Princeton University. In 1893 Moses Pyne purchased the property and expanded it into a massive estate adding wings to the house, gardens, etc. The house was then sold to Abram Spanel in 1941. Spanel was a Russian immigrant and industrialist/inventor. He was the founder of International Latex Corporation which is now known as "Playtex". He and his engineers lived in the house and many of his patented ideas were conceived in the music room of the house. The house was sold to the state in 1966 to replace Morven, but it took 15 years to raise the funds for the necessary rennovations.

The odd piece is that since 1982, only two of NJ's governors actually chose to live in the mansion; Jim Florio and James McGreevey. All the others resided in their private homes and only used the mansion for formal functions. All in all, it's probably the least resided in governor's mansion.

[KoobleKar]

The present "Exectutive Mansion" for Pennsylvania's Governor located in Harrisburg doesn't have much of a history having been purpose built in 1968-69.

However....

Prior to construction of this unique and versatile residence in 1968, gubernatorial homes either were bought privately by individual governors or purchased by the Commonwealth. The only other Pennsylvania governor to have a home specifically constructed for the purpose of housing the chief executive and providing space for conducting the affairs of the Commonwealth was Johan Printz, the Swedish Colonial Governor (1643-1653). He erected a home of imported yellow Stockholm brick and native Pennsylvania white cedar logs on Tinicum Island in the Delaware River and named it "Printz Hof." Over the following three centuries, time, tide and Man turned the island into part of the mainland and no remnants of the structure remain.
The tradition of a governor selecting and purchasing his own residence dates back to 1682, when Provincial Governor William Penn built a superb private home, "Pennsbury Manor," in Bucks County.


Pennsbury Manor was built by William Penn in 1683-1699 and is a beautiful place to visit:


Pennsbury Photo Gallery (http://www.pennsburymanor.org/Photos.html - broken link)








The customary establishment of residence continued through the relocation of the State Capitol from Philadelphia to Lancaster in 1799, and from Lancaster to Harrisburg in 1812.



The first governor to lead the state from its new capitol of Harrisburg, Governor William Findley (1817-1820), bought a property at 21 N. Front Street, which presently houses the Art Association of Harrisburg (see photo at left). Governor Findley's successor, Joseph Heister (1820-1823), also purchased the 21 N. Front Street home, presumably from Findley. Another Front Street home was purchased during the administration of John A. Schulze (1823-1829). Governor Schulze resided at 27 N. Front Street, the site currently occupied by the Balaban and Balaban Law Firm.
Francis R. Shunk (1845-1848) lived at 23 N. Front Street, now the Pennsylvania Bankers Association. The building located at 223 N. Front Street that presently houses the law firm of Calkin and Campbell, shares a similar heritage as it once was the home of William Bigler (1852-1855).


The conventional practice of governor's purchasing private homes ended under the administration of James Pollack (1850-1858), who suggested that the state purchase a residence for the governor. On January 18, 1858, the legislature purchased a house on South Second Street for $11,000 (now the site of the Executive House Apartments). Shortly after its acquisition, executive staff thought that the South Second Street home was too small.
During the second term of Andrew G. Curtin (1864) the state purchased a new residence at 313 N. Front Street in exchange for the Second Street home plus $20,000. The size of this house became inadequate as well. The adjoining lot was purchased, and an identical house was built during the administration of John W. Geary (1867-1873). A brownstone facade was later constructed to unify the two structures, and the expanded residence became known as "Keystone Hall."
By the Second Term of Gifford Pinchot (1931-1935) Keystone Hall was worn and in a state of decline. In Governor Pinchot's final message to the legislature, he strongly urged the building of a new executive mansion. Arthur H. James (1939-1943) supported the idea for a new governor's residence and signed bills providing for the disposition of Keystone Hall and authorizing construction of the new building.
Due to the poor condition of Keystone Hall, James' successors spent the majority of their terms at Fort Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, located 22 miles east of Harrisburg. This lovely fieldstone residence was built in 1942 as a home for the adjutant general by Auditor General Edward Martin. Soon after, Martin was elected governor and chose to live in the home himself. Today the stone structure, known as the State House, serves as the official residence of the Lieutenant Governor.

Although Governor James permitted the sale of Keystone Hall in 1941, it wasn't until the administration of David L. Lawrence (1959-1963) that the house was sold for a bid of $85,500 to the Insurance Company of North America. The residence, which had housed 17 governors and their families, was razed and replaced with a parking lot. During the interim, between the disposition of Keystone Hall (1960) and while plans were in progress for the construction of the new executive mansion (1968), governors resided at the Fort Indiantown Gap site.

[DewDropInn]

California had a large Victorian house in downtown Sacramento. Complete with an old-fashioned bath tub that had "feet". When Pat Brown was governor his wife painted the toenails red. It was later declared to be unsafe if an earthquake hit. So when Ronald Reagan became governor his friends got together and built a very lavish home to be the "new" mansion. This was not well received and Nancy and Ron got a ton of flack for it.

When Jerry Brown (Pat's son) became governor the first time he refused to live in Reagan's digs. He had a mattress on the floor of an apartment in Sacramento. (Small is beautiful.)

I have no idea where's Jerry is living this time around. (He was just sworn in for his third term.) He's married now and for some reason I'm thinking his wife isn't going to do the whole "batchelor digs" thing.

[WIHS2006]

I learned on a tour of Old San Juan in Puerto Rico that the governor's mansion, La Fortezela is the oldest inhabited governor's mansion in the United States. It was the official residence and workplace of all governors under both Spanish colonial rule from the 1500s until 1898, and under American rule since 1898. The tour guide told us an interesting story of how the last Spanish governor allegedly thrust his sword into a grandfather clock marking the exact moment at which Puerto Rico became a US territory. Puerto Rico was also the first US insular area that was allowed to elect their governor (1952), all the others had to wait until the 1960s and 70s to gain that privilege - prior to that they were all appointed by the President of the United States.

[newhandle]

While La Fortezela may be the oldest Governor's Mansion in continual use in the New World, the oldest Governor's Mansion of the 50 states is the Executive Mansion in Richmond, Va. Every Governor has resided there since 1813. It is on the grounds of the Va. State Capitol, which is oldest Capitol Building in continuous use since it was built in 1788 (unless you include the four days during the War when the Capitol was moved to Danville, Va.).

[Retroit]

Michigan's Governor gets 2 mansions. A 1950's contemporary ranch in the capital and a turn-of-the century 3 story Victorian-like (?) summer home on Mackinac Island.

(We're such a wealthy state, we can afford this. )