Talk of Building a Governor’s Mansion Dusts Off Old Debate

The California governor declared it a monument to extravagance, a symbol of the excess that plagued the opposing political party. He refused to move into the new, taxpayer-funded mansion.

Was this Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown deriding the mansion GOP Gov. Ronald Reagan built for his successors during the 1970s?

No. It was Republican Gov. Newton Booth 100 years earlier, lambasting the mansion built for him by a Democratic Legislature.

From California’s beginning, according to a new museum exhibit set to open in Sacramento this week, the governor’s mansion has been mired in partisan politics, bickering and grandstanding.

No governor has ever resided in a mansion built specifically for the state’s top officeholder. And as momentum builds today to build another, historians say today’s lawmakers could learn a great deal from the failures of the past.

“Because the controversy surrounding the governor’s mansion wasn’t resolved in the 19th century, it continues to haunt us today,” said Vito Sgromo, curator of the California State Capitol Museum.

As a result, the leader of the nation’s most populous state has for the past three administrations lived in a modest home in a Sacramento suburb.

“California has a strange refusal to adorn itself, which I really think we need to get beyond,” said State Librarian Kevin Starr, a historian. “We’re not talking about living high on the hog, but something that is appropriate for the chief executive officer of the seventh largest economy on the planet.”

California is one of only six states to lack a formal governor’s mansion--a diplomatic handicap that forced Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo to book a room in a Sacramento hotel last year during an official visit.

“It was an absolute embarrassment,” said state Sen. Deborah Ortiz (D-Sacramento).

Gov. Gray Davis has said he plans to leave a mansion for his successors. And a state commission born of legislation sponsored by Ortiz has begun the lengthy process of planning and constructing a permanent governor’s residence. So far, the panel has identified five potential sites, all within blocks of the Capitol.

Issues ranging from the home’s size and amenities to its furnishing and maintenance must be addressed if the latest attempt is to avoid past stumbling blocks, Sgromo warned.

If the effort succeeds, it will be the third mansion built specifically for California’s head of state. But as history has shown, it is one thing to build a gubernatorial abode, quite another to get a chief executive to call it home.

Past conflicts are amply illustrated in the exhibit “California’s Governor’s Mansions: Family, Diplomacy and Politics,” which opens Tuesday at the Capitol museum.

In 1870, the Legislature spent $50,000 to build a residence for the governor in Capitol Park. But a squabble ensued between GOP Gov. Booth and the Democratic Legislature over who should pay to furnish the grand Victorian.

“Governor Booth considers it a right thing to let the Gubernatorial Mansion stand unfinished,” a local newspaper declared cheekily in 1872.

And the fate of the first mansion? It was used as a state printing plant before being torn down roughly half a century later.

In other instances, Sgromo said, architects were commissioned to draw blueprints of mansions that were never built. The reasons range from the onset of the Depression to a decision to reallocate funds to expand the Capitol.

The most successful stab at establishing a permanent governor’s residence came in 1903, when the state purchased an existing 12,000-square-foot Victorian. Thirteen governors occupied the home.

The museum exhibit photos offer a glimpse into the lives of its past occupants. One shows Gov. Pat Brown sharing breakfast with Sen. John F. Kennedy; another features Gov. Goodwin Knight carrying his new bride, Virginia, across the threshold.

Its use abruptly ended when the Reagans moved out of the house after just a month. Nancy Reagan deemed the place a “dangerous firetrap,” and the Reagans relocated to a home that friends bought and rented to them.

Gov. Reagan had a new mansion built on a site overlooking the American River. The modern-style residence was completed after he left office.

Incoming Gov. Jerry Brown launched a new era of mansion wars when he balked at living in the $1.3-million spread, which he derided as a “Taj Mahal.” Brown spent his nights in an apartment across from the Capitol.

Two terms later, GOP Gov. George Deukmejian’s efforts to move into the mansion left by Reagan were frustrated by the Democratic Legislature. Deeming it too far away, the lawmakers sold the place to a private buyer for $1.5 million, paving the way for Deukmejian and his successors to begin leasing a home several miles east of the Capitol.

Davis is the third governor to live in that home.