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Beginning in the late 1990s, an initiative was begun to return the Mansion to its antebellum splendor. Following five years of intensive historical, structural, and material research, the Old Governor’s Mansion began its long awaited historic restoration in November of 2001. Funded through the Georgia General Assembly and a generous grant from the Woodruff Foundation, over three years of painstaking work has restored the original layout, colorations, lighting, and appearance of the building. The Old Governor’s Mansion now serves as an historic house museum, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1973.
Click here for a virtual tour of The Old Governor's Mansion.
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Last updated: 6/27/08 |
Completed in 1839, the Old Governor’s
Mansion is one of the finest examples of High Greek Revival architecture
in the nation. Designed by noted architect Charles Clusky, an Irish
immigrant, and built by Timothy Porter of Farmington, Connecticut, the
Mansion looms over Milledgeville with its stately columns and imposing
façade. Serving as the residence for Georgia’s chief executives for
over thirty years, the Mansion’s history encompasses the antebellum,
Civil War, and early Reconstruction phases of the state’s history.
Such noted state leaders as George Crawford, Howell Cobb, and Joseph E.
Brown resided in the building and used it as a stage for speeches and
also to introduce guests of national standing. During the Civil War,
the Mansion was claimed as a “prize” in the “March to the Sea,” when
General William T. Sherman headquartered in the building on November 22,
1864. Following the war, Georgia’s seat of government was relocated to
Atlanta, and the Mansion was abandoned. Given over to Georgia Normal &
Industrial College (currently known as Georgia College & State
University) in 1889, the Mansion served as the founding building of the
institution and is the campus’s most treasured structure.
