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Families
in the Mansion:
Life
in the Governor’s House
It’s
a first. On Richmond’s Capitol Square, not far
from where legislators and lobbyists gather, a
former first child has slipped into the Executive
Mansion to become Virginia’s first lady. Anne
Holton, wife of Governor Tim Kaine, shared the
austere dwelling with her parents and siblings from
1970 to 1974, during her father, Linwood Holdon,
Jr.'s. tenure as governor.
“We
kind of treated the place as a big play yard,”
Holton told the Washington Times recently.
("Back to the Executive Mansion,"
Washington Times, December 12, 2005). Her brother,
Woody, would roller skate through a tunnel that
connected the mansion with the Capitol, and Dwight,
another sibling, played in a tree house built in an
oak on the grounds.
Holton
is not the first child of a governor to also become
first lady in the Commonwealth. That honor goes to
Martha Jefferson Randolph – daughter of Thomas
Jefferson, Virginia’s second governor. She was
married to Governor Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr. (1819
- 1822). Martha Randolph lived with her father in
Williamsburg when Jefferson was governor. Holton,
however, is the first to live in the same residence
twice.
The
Executive Mansion has an illustrious history.
Completed in 1813, it is the oldest continuously
occupied governor’s house in the nation. Plans for
the new residence began when Governor John Tyler,
Sr. (1808 -1811) requested that the General Assembly
appropriate funds for a new governor’s house.
According to William Seale in "Virginia’s
Executive Mansion," Tyler felt his current
dwelling “was intolerable for a private family.”
Lack of privacy seemed to be his major concern. In a
speech to legislators, he explained that there was
“not a foot of ground that is not exposed to three
streets, besides a cluster of dirty tenements
immediately in front of the house with their windows
opening into the enclosure.”
The
legislators agreed and allocated funds for the
project. Admired by students of architectural
history, the Federal-style building has housed an
array of first families, couples, widowers and
bachelors over its 193-year history.
The
first residents, Governor James Barbour (1812 –
1814) and his wife Lucy, were well-known for their
hospitality. Food and drink were available
constantly, including a silver bowl with a whisky
punch cooled with ice. Legislators could stop by
anytime to refresh themselves. Things were quite
different when Winston Churchill, while researching
his book, "History of the English-Speaking
Peoples," visited the Executive Mansion
during the dry Prohibition years. Gov. Harry F.
Byrd, Sr. (1926 – 1930) discovered that Churchill
drank a quart of brandy a day. According to Seale,
Byrd shared the predicament with a local
newspaperman and asked if he could find and deliver
a quart of French brandy every day during the
Englishman’s visit. Apparently, the journalist had
speakeasy contacts and did.
Known
at various times as Virginia’s “state house”
or “government house,” the Executive Mansion has
an unusual status as a quasi-public building. It was
often remodeled every four years or less by each new
occupant due to the Virginia Constitution’s
one-term limitation for governor. Such changes
reflected the lifestyles of new residents or the
technology of the age. Gov. Littleton Tazewell (1834
– 1836) and his wife were night owls. Tazewell
often stayed up past 2 a.m. reading or playing
chess. He needed better artificial light for these
activities and replaced the home’s oil lamps with
its first chandelier. Governor William "Extra
Billy" Smith (1846 – 1849) installed the
mansion’s first indoor toilet and bathing
facilities, state-of-the-art innovations at the
time.
A
child’s error resulted in one of the Executive
Mansion’s most extensive overhauls. In 1926,
Governor Elbert Lee Trinkle's five-year-old son,
Billy, lit a sparkler that accidentally ignited a
Christmas tree. Mrs. Trinkle braved the smoke and
flames to rescue her 15-year-old son Lee, asleep in
an upstairs bedroom. The resulting fire destroyed
the rear of the house. Trinkle, who stayed in his
wife’s hospital room after the fire, left office
less than a month later. But, he made arrangements
with incoming Governor Byrd to rebuild the destroyed
portion.
A
recent major renovation took place during Governor
James Gilmore, III's tenure (1998 - 2002). Home-
repair-expert Bob Vila, of “This Old House”
fame, filmed the months-long project for a 13-part
series on his newer TV show, “Home Again.”
According to a Washington Post article (“Governor’s
Mansion Is Good as New,” Nov. 19, 1999), the
$7.5 million renovation included putting in new
cable hookups and phone lines for high-speed
Internet access, as well as restoring paint to
original colors.
Now
that the inauguration hoopla has died down, Kaine,
Holton and their three children are settling into
the cream-colored mansion. “Thinking about what it
will be like to have my children here, it was – I
think ‘surreal’ is the word,” Holton told the Washington
Times about a visit to the mansion after her
husband’s election. Surreal or not, perhaps her
return proves you can go home, again.
NEXT:
Branded Restrooms: What’s Next for Virginia’s
Rest Stops?
--
February 13, 2006
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