Virginia Governor’s Mansion (Richmond, Virginia)

 house, mansion / manor house / villa, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, Federal style (architecture), 1810s construction, U.S. National Historic Landmark

The Virginia Governor’s Mansion, formally referred to as the Virginia Executive Mansion, is the oldest governor’s mansion in the United States built for that purpose. Its residents have had an important impact on the history of the nation as well as the Commonwealth of Virginia. Alexander Parris, a New England builder and architect, who resided in Richmond for three years, designed the Governor’s Mansion between 1811 and 1813. It replaced an earlier house adjacent to the present mansion that Governor Thomas Jefferson leased and subsequent governors occupied after the state acquired it in 1782. The dilapidated condition of the original wooden building prompted its replacement by the present executive mansion.

The center-hall Governor’s Mansion is in the Federal style. A hipped roof and a balustrade that connects the four chimneys distinguish the two-story painted brick residence. The building has a slightly projecting center bay where a four columned portico in the “Tower of the Winds” Corinthian order creates a monumental entrance to the building. The façade is ornamented with decorative panels of garlands and swags.

The interior of the house evolved in two primary phases. The stair hall and two front rooms on the first floor retain their original early 19th-century appearance and feature decoration and furnishings of that period. A major renovation in 1906 by the architect Duncan Lee opened up the rear rooms of the building and added a large ballroom decorated in a suitably classical mode. The private apartments of Virginia’s governors are on the second floor of the mansion.

A sunken garden is to the south of the house. Overlooking the garden are the original kitchen quarter and stables where the slaves and servants of Virginia governors resided and worked. Family and staff of the governor use the dependencies and garden.

The Virginia Governor’s Mansion is the oldest building continuously used as an executive residence in the United States. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.