First mansion Prior to the relocation of the state capital to Jefferson City, the first governors who were from the
St. Louis, Missouri/
St. Charles, Missouri area lived in their private homes and if the need arose they rented homes in St. Charles. The first Jefferson City governor's mansion also doubled as the home for the
Missouri General Assembly, with the
Missouri House of Representatives meeting on the ground floor, the
Missouri State Senate on the second floor and the governor living in two rooms. The structure, which was 60 by , was completed in November 1826 at a cost of $20,000. The building was designed by
Stephen Hills and was modeled on the first
Pennsylvania State Capitol in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Hill later designed
Academic Hall at the
University of Missouri (of which now remains only the landmark columns on the
Francis Quadrangle.
Second mansion Missouri's second governor
Daniel Dunklin, after being elected in 1832, refused to move his family to the building. Construction of a new $5,000 mansion began in the autumn of 1833 and was completed in 1834. It was at the end of the same block as the original mansion/capitol. It had dimensions of 48 by and a portico with four. The building survived the November 15, 1837 fire that destroyed the neighboring capitol when wet blankets were applied to the roof of the mansion. The mansion suffered a fire in the 1840s during the administration of
Thomas Reynolds. Reynolds killed himself in the mansion in 1844. A sofa with pineapple-shaped legs belonging to Reynolds is now one of the oldest pieces of furniture in the current mansion. Governor
Robert Marcellus Stewart initiated a campaign to build a new residence. Stewart rode a horse up the steps into the house and ordered a servant to feed it a
peck of oats. Stewart also pardoned all the women in the state prison and had them work in the mansion. The General Assembly allocated $20,000 for a new mansion but, the
American Civil War interrupted the plan.
Current mansion After
B. Gratz Brown assumed office in 1871, several people said they would not come to large gatherings at the mansion because they feared disaster. In March 1871, the Assembly allocated $50,000 for a new mansion.
George Ingham Barnett (whose work includes most of the buildings at the
Missouri Botanical Garden built for Henry Shaw) was the architect. Major exterior features of the square, three-story red brick building are the
mansard roof and four pink granite columns from Brown's quarry in
Iron County, Missouri. The most striking interior feature is the Grand Stairway carved of walnut. The first of the major renovations occurred in the 1890s under Governor
David Rowland Francis; they included painting the bricks deep red to cover
soot stains. The next major renovation occurred under
Lloyd C. Stark in which $55,000 was allocated to replace the columns supporting the Grand Stairway with steel brackets. The exterior was painted white and the Starks donated 3,000 plants from their nursery. During
Kit Bond’s administration in the 1980s, the mansion was renovated extensively in an attempt to restore it to an 1871 appearance including the addition of
Renaissance Revival style of furniture and restoration of the pink brick exterior. ==Tours==