Old Governor's Mansion (Milledgeville, Georgia)

Governor's Mansion
Location 120 S. Clark St., Milledgeville, Georgia
Coordinates 33°4′42″N 83°13′53″W / 33.07833°N 83.23139°W / 33.07833; -83.23139Coordinates: 33°4′42″N 83°13′53″W / 33.07833°N 83.23139°W / 33.07833; -83.23139
Built 1838
Architect Charles B. Cluskey
Architectural style Greek Revival
NRHP Reference # 70000194
Significant dates
Added to NRHP May 13, 1970[1]
Designated NHL November 7, 1973[2]

The Old Governor's Mansion is a historic house museum of the Georgia College & State University (GCSU) at 120 South Clarke Street in Milledgeville, Georgia. Built in 1838, it is one of the finest examples of Greek Revival architecture in the American South, and was designated a National Historic Landmark for its architecture in 1973. It served as Georgia's executive mansion until 1868, and has from 1879 been a university property, serving for a time as its official president's residence.[2][3]

Description and history

The Old Governor's Mansion is located in central Milledgeville, just south of the central GCSU campus at the corner of Clarke Street and Oconoee River Greenway. It is set on a manicured parcel, its street-facing sides lined by a low brick retaining wall topped by a low fence painted white. The main house is basically rectangular, two stories in height, built of stuccoed brick with a hip roof capped by a small circular cupola. The main facade faces west toward Clarke Street, and has a four-columned Greek temple portico projecting at its center. The portico is supported by smooth Ionic columns made of brick with granite bases and capitals, and it supports an entablature and fully pedimented gable. The entablature is continued around the sides of the building, with pilastered corners. Windows have simple stone sills, and slightly arched stone lintels.[3]

The mansion was built in 1838 to a design by Charles B. Cluskey, and is considered to be one of his finest works. It was the first of Georgia's three official mansions and one unofficial mansion, located in two different cities, and served in that capacity until 1868, when the state capital was moved to Atlanta. It thereafter was used as a boarding house until 1879, when the state loaned it to the newly organized Georgia Military and Agricultural College, and then to Georgia Normal and Industrial College, now GCSU. The mansion served as the latter school's first dormitory, with the presidential apartment on the second floor. The school began offering tours of the ground floor in 1967.[3] In the late 1990s the college had the building restored to its antebellum splendor, and opened it as a historic house museum devoted to the history of the building and its many occupants.

See also

References

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2007-01-23). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. 1 2 "Governor's Mansion (Milledgeville)". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-04-28.
  3. 1 2 3 Mary Jo Thompson (May 1, 1971). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Old Governor's Mansion / Executive Mansion" (pdf). National Park Service.

External links

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