To the Woodshed With ‘em !

Move Mount Vernon across the Potomac River and put it on the White House lawn for office space? No one would stand for it. But the scheme behind a bill now before Gov. George Deukmejian is nearly as bizarre and historically offensive. It is to relocate California’s historic governor’s mansion from its present site in Sacramento to a spot near the Capitol and renovate it as offices for the governor and his staff.

Both houses of the Legislature have passed the bill, sponsored by Assembly Rules Committee Chairman Louis J. Papan (D-Millbrae), to create a commission that would sponsor a competition for architectural designs for the transplanted mansion. Why would the Legislature support such a crackpot idea? Simple. Move the governor and his staff out of the East Wing of the Capitol, and the Legislature gets to pick up choice office space.

The three-story mansion was built in 1877 for Sacramento hardware merchant Albert Gallatin, descendant of an early American financier and statesman. It also was the boyhood home of journalist Lincoln Steffens. The rambling old house ceased being an active governor’s mansion when Ronald and Nancy Reagan moved out in 1967.

The splendid example of Victorian architecture now is a museum operated by the state Parks and Recreation Department, and occasionally is rented out for special events. The mansion should be allowed to continue its graceful retirement in this fashion. It will if the governor does the logical thing and vetoes the bill.