“Keeping with the Dignity of the Commonwealth”: 50 Years of the Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence

The Governor’s Residence at 2035 North Front Street in Harrisburg was completed 50 years ago. In December 1968 Gov. Raymond Shafer and family moved in.
Historic Harrisburg Association / Photo by Robin B. Schuldenfrei

The stately Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence overlooking the Susquehanna River at 2035 North Front Street in the Uptown neighborhood of Harrisburg, Dauphin County, reaches its half-century mark in 2018, a milestone that is being observed with a variety of events and programs throughout the year. The Georgian Revival mansion was completed in 1968, during the term of Gov. Raymond P. Shafer, its first occupant. The 50-year history of the residence includes its flooding and near destruction in June 1972 by Tropical Storm Agnes and visits by many world-renowned figures in government (Gerald Ford, Hillary Clinton, George H. W. and George W. Bush), sports (Arnold Palmer, Franco Harris, Julius “Dr. J” Erving), entertainment (James Stewart, Della Reese, Fred Rogers, Arnold Schwarzenegger) and the arts (Andrew Wyeth, John Updike, James Michener). Nine first families – Shafers, Shapps, Thornburghs, Caseys, Ridges, Schweikers, Rendells, Corbetts and Wolfs – were invited to return for a reunion on June 1-2, 2018, that included current and former residence staff and volunteers.

Governor’s Residences of the Past

The story of the official home of Pennsylvania’s chief executive begins long before 1968. Discussions began as early as the 1920s about the need for a newer residence with off-street parking and other amenities to replace Keystone Hall, the Victorian-era townhouse at 313 North Front Street. Neither Keystone Hall nor its downtown Harrisburg predecessors were purposely built as executive residences; they were existing houses that had to be adapted for the needs and functions of the governor.

Called Governors’ Row, the houses on the first block of North Front Street in Harrisburg served as Pennsylvania governors’ residences in the early 19th century.
Historic Harrisburg Association / Photo by Robin B. Schuldenfrei

It could be said that Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial residences date back to 1683, when William Penn established Pennsbury Manor outside of Philadelphia. A number of buildings, mostly privately owned and with varying degrees of official status, housed governors and first families through the years. When Harrisburg became Pennsylvania’s capital in 1812, it was a small riverfront town, one of many on the Susquehanna River. But the Harris family, who ambitiously persuaded the legislature to select Harrisburg as the capital by offering land free of charge, had big ideas for what was essentially a grandiose real estate venture. The Harrises, having incorporated Harrisburg as a borough in 1785, complete with a street grid that mimicked Philadelphia’s, even lobbied (unsuccessfully) to bring the U.S. capital to Harrisburg.

Anticipating an influx of political and business leaders, third-generation Robert Harris built a block of elegant Federal-style brick townhouses on Front Street that became so popular with early 19th-century governors that it has been known ever since as “Governors’ Row.” These and other antebellum residences were rented from landlords.

In 1858 the state legislature appropriated funds for the purchase of the first official “executive mansion,” a brick townhouse on Second Street, south of Chestnut, on the site occupied today by a modern apartment house appropriately named Executive House. Civil War-era governor Andrew Curtin, desperately needing more office space, moved to a larger corner house at 313 North Front Street in 1864. This was half of a double house. In 1867 the adjoining half was purchased, doubling the square footage of the residence.

Keystone Hall at 313 North Front Street in Harrisburg served as the governor’s residence from 1864 until its sale and demolition in 1960. It was actually a pair of brick townhouses that were unified and given an ornate Victorian brownstone façade in the 1880s. Historic Harrisburg Association

This commodious property would remain in state ownership for nearly a century. In 1885, during the administration of Gov. James A. Beaver, an ornate Victorian-style façade was affixed to the unified mansion. It was around this time that it became known as Keystone Hall.

Although Keystone Hall was grand enough to accommodate elegant receptions, formal dinners, and even weddings of first daughters in the early decades of the 20th century, it fell increasingly out of favor. Its plumbing and heating were antiquated. Its interior layout was not conducive to state functions. There were 56 steps to climb to the third-floor bedrooms and installing an elevator had proven impossible. Its downtown location was cramped, hot in summer, and increasingly less stylish than the newer mansions that stretched up Front Street to the city line and beyond.

Year after year, governors complained. Gov. George Howard Earle refused to occupy it in 1935 until extensive renovations were made and the fleas from the prized dogs of his predecessor, Gov. Gifford Pinchot, were exterminated. Gov. Arthur James, who removed Earle’s pinball machine when he took up residence, regarded life at Keystone Hall as “living in a morgue.” The characterization was sad but true. In the 1880s successive governors Robert Pattison and James Beaver saw their young sons, both juniors, die at the mansion.

The Summer Mansion, later called the State House, was built on the grounds of Fort Indiantown Gap during World War II and was a residence for governors until 1968. Since then, it has served as the Lieutenant Governor’s Residence. PHMC

Around 1940 Gov. Edward Martin, a military man, began spending weekends and holidays in a cottage at Fort Indiantown Gap. With the approach of World War II, plans had been made for an official residence on the compound for the senior state military official. Because of wartime shortages and rationing, two nearby farmhouses were demolished, and the stone and timbers were recycled for construction of a new Colonial-style country house. Martin himself, as commander in chief, moved in (which some speculated was probably the plan all along), dubbing it the “Summer Mansion.” This soon became the preferred domicile, as postwar governors John C. Bell, James H. Duff, John S. Fine and George M. Leader increasingly favored it over living at Keystone Hall, using the latter mostly for official functions.

David L. Lawrence was the last governor to cross the threshold of Keystone Hall. During his term, as plans were made to sell the old Front Street house, he declared the Fort Indiantown Gap residence to be the official executive mansion, and it was named the State House. Keystone Hall was sold in 1960 and subsequently demolished for a parking lot. The State House was later occupied by Gov. William Scranton and his family without the option of even an occasional overnight in Harrisburg.

A New Governor’s Residence

Scranton inherited a 20-year-old dispute. Although Martin and his successors had favored Indiantown Gap, Martin’s predecessor, Arthur James, had preferred Harrisburg. Civic leaders felt strongly that the governor should live on Front Street. In 1941 James had initiated such a plan. Two large Victorian mansions at Front and Maclay streets, occupying a full city block, were acquired. Speaker of the House Elmer Kilroy was quoted as saying, “Personally, I believe that Pennsylvania should have a home for its governors bigger and better than the executive mansions of any other state in the Union. We are building for the next 100 years, and the mansion should be built in a suitable place in keeping with the dignity of the Commonwealth.”

The renowned Philadelphia architect Paul Philippe Cret was commissioned to design an official governor’s residence, but the project never got off the drawing board. World War II, followed by a “not on my watch” stance, kicked the can down the road for 25 years. State agencies were moved into the recently acquired mansions, where they remained until the mid-1960s.

This 1941 scheme by Paul Philippe Cret showing the west elevation for a new governor’s residence was intended, like the White House, to include offices for the chief executive and staff. Pennsylvania State Archives / MG-160

Finally, it was Scranton who gave the green light in 1966 to resume plans for a new mansion. Cret had died in 1945, so another Philadelphia architect, George Ewing, was engaged to produce a new design. Ewing chose an early Pennsylvania Georgian-style design as opposed to something more contemporary. He explained his decision, as reported in a Harrisburg Patriot-News article, that he felt modern design was “here for the time being and 50 years from now very little of it will be recognized.”

Gov. Raymond P. Shafer and First Lady Jane Shafer, the first residents of the mansion, are seen here on the North Second Street side of the building during a Pennsylvania Historical Marker dedication ceremony on December 10, 1970. Markers were installed adjacent to the mansion at this location and on the North Front Street side. PHMC

Bids let by Pennsylvania’s General State Authority came in totaling just more than $1.5 million. Pennsylvania governors at the time were limited to a single four-year term, so Scranton could rest assured that he was not building it for himself. Nonetheless, the legislative leaders who controlled the General State Authority, with self-protective instincts, postponed the awarding of contracts until late November 1966, two weeks after election day. H. B. Alexander & Son, a prominent Harrisburg contractor, received the $1,272,200 general construction contract. Completion was scheduled for March 15, 1968, a mere 16 months away.

The project was just getting under way when Shafer was inaugurated as governor in January 1967. He and his wife Jane and their daughters would be the first occupants of the new residence, and they were invited for periodic inspection tours, accompanied by the news media. Construction made swift progress through 1967, with the 220-foot-long house under roof by year’s end. Interior work included the craftsmanship of 20 cabinetmakers employed by E. C. Snyder Inc., the millwork subcontractor. They worked for more than a year on the project, making doors, windows, walnut paneling for the library, the oak grand staircase, birch banister, white pine moldings, fireplace mantels, and other features, according to a 1968 Reporter at Large column in the Harrisburg Patriot-News by Paul Beers, who called them “the unknown artists of the new Governor’s Mansion.”

Another story hit the newspapers when two state senators from northeastern Pennsylvania’s renowned Slate Belt expressed outrage on learning that Virginia slate had been chosen for the roof. A more positive news story in May 1968 covered the cornerstone laying ceremony, in which Shafer and the first lady inserted a lead box time capsule containing a family photograph, a letter from the governor “to Pennsylvanians of tomorrow,” the latest Pennsylvania Manual, and copies of the May 13, 1968, editions of the Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh newspapers.

Throughout 1968 the Women’s Advisory Committee for the Executive Mansion of Pennsylvania, a bipartisan group of 18 prominent women charged with furnishing the residence’s 32 rooms, worked steadily, soliciting donations, collecting antiques to match the Georgian period architecture of the mansion, acquiring paintings, and requisitioning draperies, carpets and wallpaper. A progress report carried on the AP wire service in June 1968 noted that the ladies had accumulated a painting titled Steel Mills and River at Twilight, a Philadelphia Hepplewhite tall case clock, a Samuel Hill tall case clock with Harrisburg on its face, a Berks County hand-painted corner cupboard, a Lancaster sofa, a patriotic engraving from the Germantown Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and a complete set of cooking equipment from Alcoa.

In addition to acquiring donated items, the women oversaw a total project costing nearly $500,000, which included a $350,000 state appropriation, a $100,000 donation from the Mellons, and other cash contributions. Their expenses included not only the interior finishes and furnishings (and the consulting fees of their interior designer, Morris Tindall of Paoli), but also the landscaping of the property and the selection of more than 80 mature trees.

The project completion date was pushed from March to July and finally to December. On December 13, the Oil City Derrick ran a three-column story about the Shafers’ long-awaited moving day, complete with a photo of the governor toting his briefcase and a GOP elephant, while the first lady carried the family Bible as they mounted the front steps of the new $2 million residence. The article further noted that while the governor had cut his daily commute to the Capitol to less than 10 minutes, their daughter Janie, 15, would complete the school year at Northern Lebanon High School near Indiantown Gap traveling 50 miles daily.

Gubernatorial Occupants

In June 1972 flood waters from Tropical Storm Agnes inundated and devastated much of Harrisburg, including the four-year-old Governor’s Residence. Full recovery would take several years. Pennsylvania State Archives / MG-309

Gov. Milton Shapp, one of many hundreds of Harrisburg residents left homeless by the Agnes flood of 1972, spent several months surveying damage in communities throughout Pennsylvania, expediting recovery and relief efforts, and coordinating federal, state and local resources. Pennsylvania State Archives / MG-309

The State Dining Room and the ground floor and basement of the residence were flooded. Staff moved furniture and pinned up floor-length draperies to minimize damage. Pennsylvania State Archives / MG-309

Gov. Milton Shapp and his wife Muriel moved into the Governor’s Residence in January 1971, but less than a year and a half later they were forced out, along with many of their Harrisburg neighbors, by the devastating Tropical Storm Agnes flood of June 1972. The Shapps had to be evacuated by motor boat.

The damage to the mansion, the grounds, and the entire neighborhood was so extensive (an adjacent full city block burned to the ground), that a total return to antediluvian conditions would take years. Cleaning up the mud and debris alone took many months. A welcome sight for the many left homeless was the appearance of cleanup groups, including a contingent of Old Order Amish who arrived quietly to volunteer. The Shapps rented a house in Wormleysburg, Cumberland County, on Harrisburg’s suburban “West Shore,” where they remained for the balance of their eight-year administration. The Front Street mansion, once restored, was used primarily for meetings and state functions.

In 1979 Gov. Dick Thornburgh, his wife Ginny, and four sons arrived in Harrisburg, intent on making the mansion their family home. To emphasize the point, the residence was named “the Governor’s Home,” with stationery and paper napkins printed accordingly. Since the brief Shafer residency and the interrupted Shapp occupancy, the house had never been truly “lived in.” Ginny Thornburgh reconstituted the Advisory Committee, this time with men as well as women appointees, and Anne Genter, a member of the original women’s committee, was named chairman. The committee carried out comprehensive interior refurbishing, with emphasis on showcasing Pennsylvania antiques and artworks, and it oversaw the complete relandscaping of the property. “It was nothing but a football field when we arrived,” recalled John Thornburgh at the recent reunion, as he and others marveled at the now mature landscaping begun by his mother and continued by subsequent first ladies and volunteer committees.

In December 1997, reflecting a shift of emphasis in the custodianship of a property entering its fourth decade, First Lady Michelle Ridge established a Governor’s Residence Preservation Committee, again with Anne Genter as chairman. By keeping Genter at the helm and by emphasizing preservation, the committee was charged with overseeing projects that would change the landmark property as little as possible. This committee coordinated the erection of Georgian-style garden pavilions that more effectively shielded the Jane Shafer Rose Garden on the south lawn from the modern office building, parking lot, and urban alley that abutted the perimeter iron fence. In later years, ADA accessibility requirements were met by sensitively adding ramps and redesigning restrooms.

Gov. Ed Rendell, who saw the unique value of using the Governor’s Residence for official business and entertaining, once remarked, “We reached major state budget agreements and the successful negotiation of union contracts by conducting them here in these relaxed and hospitable surroundings.”

The Erie Room in the current Governor’s Residence honors the citizens of Erie and features an antique carved mantel depicting the Battle of Lake Erie, created by Robert Wellford, c.1815. It is one of five such mantels known to exist; one is in the White House, two are in the Winterthur Museum, and one is owned by a private collector in New York City. Historic Harrisburg Association / Photo by Robin B. Schuldenfrei

Incumbent governor Tom Wolf and First Lady Frances Wolf recently hosted the 50th anniversary reunion of the Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence. Frances Wolf, an oil painter with a background in art history, has instituted a busy schedule of art exhibitions featuring works by prominent artists as well as schoolchildren, with open-house receptions and musical performances presented free of charge. The first lady also works closely with the current Governor’s Residence Preservation Committee to ensure that the mansion continues to fulfill Speaker of the House Elmer Kilroy’s vision that it be the finest in the Union, “suitably in keeping with the dignity of the Commonwealth.”

The Family Dining Room boasts an antique Robert Wellford mahogany mantel funded by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Annenberg. The 14 hand-carved mahogany chairs in the style of Benjamin Randolph, often referred to as the “Chippendale of Colonial America,” were the gift of Henry S. McNeil. Historic Harrisburg Association / Photo by Robin B. Schuldenfrei

This abundance of pride is borne out by the residence’s popularity as a tourist destination. Bus groups, school groups and individual tourists can be seen lining the entrance walks on public tour days. The tours are provided free of charge by a rotating team of 35 volunteer docents, but by advance reservation only. The docent program was started in 1979 when Marcia Gobrecht, a local historian and community leader, presented the idea to First Lady Ginny Thornburgh. The residence was included in December 1979 on the Historic Harrisburg Association Candlelight House Tour, an event that has continued annually ever since.

The Jane Shafer Rose Garden at the Governor’s Residence was dedicated in 1970 by First Lady Jane Shafer and includes 250 roses of 13 different cultivators. Historic Harrisburg Association / Photo by Robin B. Schuldenfrei

50th Anniversary Events at the Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence

With the approach of the residence’s 50th anniversary in 2018, an anniversary committee was formed by First Lady Frances Wolf to plan and help execute a calendar of programs, most of them open to the public free of charge.

On Sunday, November 11, the panel discussion “With Grace and Style: Furnishing the New Governor’s Residence” will be held at the residence. Anne Genter and Elizabeth Stone, members of the original Women’s Advisory Committee for the Executive Mansion of Pennsylvania that furnished the 32 rooms of the residence with interior finishes, historic antiques and artworks, will discuss their work on the committee, and Diane Shafer Domnick, daughter of Gov. Raymond P. Shafer, will describe her experience moving into the newly completed residence in 1968.

On Sunday, December 9, the key event of the anniversary, the Holiday Open House, will be held in conjunction with the 45th Historic Harrisburg Candlelight House Tour, at which the governor and the first lady will greet visitors. The elegant Georgian-style first-floor rooms will feature displays of important Pennsylvania antiques, mementos from past governors, artworks, and holiday decorations crafted by children, seniors and other volunteer groups. For tickets, times and more information on this tour, visit historicharrisburg.com or call 717-233-4646.

A wide variety of special programs and educational activities, many of them designed for schoolchildren, are available at the residence. These include Second Sunday events, children’s literacy programs, yoga for kids, an outdoor observation beehive created by a longtime volunteer beekeeper, and agricultural education programs and projects.

To schedule a free guided tour of the Governor’s Residence and for information on programs and activities, call 717-772-9130 or visit residence.pa.gov.

The author wishes to thank the late Emily Lenker Long, who served on the original Women’s Advisory Committee as its executive secretary, for providing key information in this article.

David J. Morrison is executive director of the Historic Harrisburg Association.