Georgia Governor's Mansion
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The Governor's Mansion is the official home of the Governor of the U.S. state of Georgia. The Mansion, a three floor, 30 room, Greek Revival style home built in 1967, stands on approximately 18 acres (73,000 m²) on historic West Paces Ferry road in northwest Atlanta. It was designed by Georgia architect Thomas Bradbury and officially opened on January 1, 1968.
Lester Maddox was the first governor to live there, followed by Jimmy Carter, George Busbee, Joe Frank Harris, Zell Miller, Roy Barnes, and now, Sonny Perdue.
The house covers 24,000 square feet (2,200 m²) and has a total of 30 Doric columns around the porches. These columns are made from California redwoods and are each 24 feet (7 m) high. They are hollowed out and specially treated on the inside to handle water drainage from the roof.
All of the rooms on the first floor are used for official entertaining. The second floor contains the Perdues' private living quarters. All of the furnishings in the house are considered to be museum quality and make up one of the finest Federal period collections in the United States. These furnishings were acquired by a 70-member fine arts committee while the Mansion was being constructed. It is a permanent collection and belongs to the state of Georgia. It does not change from one administration to the next.
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[edit] Previous mansions
The first Executive Mansion (1838-1868) was located in Milledgeville and is still open today for public tours. The state capital was moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta in 1868 and the first residence was unofficial, a 3-story building on the east side of Peachtree between Ellis and Baker owned by Charles Larenden.
In 1870 the first official mansion in Atlanta was purchased from John H. James at Cain (International) and Peachtree and its first occupant was Rufus Bullock. Seventeen governors occupied this large Victorian home until Governor Dorsey vacated the increasingly rundown building for his summer home near the Atlanta Water Works in 1921. The old James home was demolished in 1923 and the Henry Grady hotel was later built on that site which is now occupied by the Westin Peachtree Plaza.[1]
In 1925, the state acquired the large granite estate of Edwin Ansley, located at The Prado in Ansley Park. That estate housed 11 governors before it was vacated and demolished in 1968.
The current Governor's Mansion property belonged to former Atlanta mayor Robert Maddox (no relation to Lester Maddox), who owned a large English Tudor style home on the site. A fire destroyed a large part of the house and Mr. Maddox sold the property to the state. The remainder of the home was demolished and the current Governor's Mansion was built on the site.
The Governor's Mansion is located at 391 West Paces Ferry Rd. NW. Public tours are conducted throughout the year on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays between 10:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Reservations are needed for groups of 10 or more.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Garrett, Vol.I, p.835.
[edit] References
- Office of the Governor, Georgia State Capitol, Atlanta, GA 30334
- Garrett, Franklin (1954). Atlanta and its Environs. University of Georgia Press.
[edit] External link
- Mansion Information from the Governor's Website
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
- Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth
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