Arkansas Governor's Mansion
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| Governor's Mansion Historic District (Boundary Increase) | |
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| (U.S. Registered Historic District Contributing Property) |
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| Location: | Little Rock, Arkansas |
| Architect: | Thompson, Charles L.; Samders. Theodore M. |
| Architectural style(s): | Queen Anne, Colonial Revival |
| Added to NRHP: | February 15, 2002 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 02000010[1] |
| Governing body: | Private |
The Arkansas Governor's Mansion is the official residence of the Governor of Arkansas and his family. The mansion is located at 1800 Center Street in Little Rock.
Before 1950, Arkansas had never had an official residence for its governor.[2]
In 1947 Act 257 of the Arkansas General Assembly established a Governor's Mansion Commission with an appropriation of $100,000.00. The site was the former location of the Arkansas School for the Blind, which had moved to new quarters near the city's Pulaski Heights neighborhood. The architects were Frank J. Ginocchio, Jr. and Edwin B. Cromwell.
Construction on the mansion began in December of 1947 (incorporating 300,000 bricks from the original School for the Blind structures), and the Governor's Residence officially opened on January 10, 1950. The first Governor to reside here was Sidney S. McMath, who moved in on February 3, 1950. Significant additions to the mansion were completed during the administration of Mike Huckabee.
Huckabee received massive publicity when he moved into a mobile home on the mansion grounds during the renovation. The move became the topic of jokes on the evening talk show circuit. "It's not a trailer. It's a triple wide," Huckabee joked. Huckabee told Jay Leno that the 2,100 square, $110,000 trailer (donated by the Arkansas Manufactured Housing Association) "was big enough for your chin." Huckabee said there were substantial cost savings in using the trailer, because the security detail would not have to be moved to a new rented location.[3]
In addition to its notability as an official state residence, the mansion's exterior has been featured as the exterior of Suzanne Sugarbaker's home on the CBS television series Designing Women.
[edit] References
- ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).
- ^ Official history of the mansion - Retrieved 2008-04-19
- ^ Arkansas Gov To Call Modular Mansion Home - stateline.org - August 23, 2000
[edit] External links
- Arkansas Governor's Mansion is at coordinates Coordinates:
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