130 East Gilman Street
Madison, WI, USA

Old Executive Mansion

Wisconsin's Old Executive Residence, known better as the Old Governor's Mansion, is located at 130 East Gilman Street in the Mansion Hill Historic District of Madison, Wisconsin, on the southern shore of Lake Mendota. Constructed of local sandstone sometime around 1854–1856, it served as the official residence of the governor of Wisconsin from 1885 to 1950. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Since August 2019 it has been open as a boutique hotel named Governor's Mansion Inn.


History

According to the Madison Landmarks Commission, "this house was originally built for Catherine and Julius T. White, Secretary of the Wisconsin Insurance Company. The Whites sold the house in 1857 to one of Madison's first settlers, George P. Delaplaine, and his wife Emily. Delaplaine was secretary to Governors Farwell and Dewey and co-owner of one of the largest real estate development firms in the city. In 1867 the house rose to greater social prominence when it was purchased by State Senator J. G. Thorp, a millionaire lumber baron, and his wife Amelia. In 1870, the Thorps' young daughter, Sara, married Ole Bull, the world-famous 60-year-old Norwegian violinist in one of the most lavish weddings the town had ever seen."

In 1883, the mansion was purchased privately by Governor and future U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Jeremiah McLain Rusk for $15,000. Two years later, he sold it to the state and it became the official residence of the Governor.[2] Over the years, 18 governors resided here. It remained the official residence until 1949/50, when the current Wisconsin Governor's Mansion in the village of Maple Bluff was purchased by the state. State Assemblywoman Ruth Doyle and others opposed the move out of concern about the future of the Old Executive Residence.

In 1951, the building was repurposed as a residential unit for the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Renamed Knapp House in honor of Kemper K. Knapp,[3] it housed graduate students for more than 50 years. In 2016, it was sold as state surplus property to Bob Klebba and David Waugh, who renovated and redeveloped it as a boutique hotel.

National Register of Historic Places - Old Executive Mansion

Statement of Significance:

The Old Executive Mansion is of statewide historical importance because it served as the governor’s residence for seventeen chiefs of state from 1883 to 1950^ It is of local architectural importance because of its exceptionally handsome Victorian design and its use of indigenous sandstone materials.

There is some discrepancy between secondary sources which date the construction of this house as 1854, and City of Madison tax rolls which indicate that major construction on this site probably took place ca. 1856. It can only be assumed, therefore, that the house was built ca. 1854-1856. The original owner was Julius T. White, a prominent businessman and later a Union general, causing the house originally to be known as the "White House." White was an avid art collector and presided over the social and artistic life of the community until he left Madison in 1857, selling the house to George P. Delaplaine, private secretary to the first and second governors of Wisconsin. White and Delaplaine established a reputation for the house for lavish parties and entertainment, a reputation which future owners carried into the 20th century.

A major chapter in the life r-d€ this house, more important for social than political history, began when multimillionaire lumber baron J.G. Thorp purchased it in 1868 to move his social-climbing wife to Madison from Eau Claire, where her considerable social talents were withering. Mrs. Thorp ruled Madison's social community from this house until 1883, a reign whose crowning achievement was the marriage of the Thorp daughter, Sara, then 20-years-old, to world-famous violinist Ole Bull, then 60-years-old. Ole Bull made his American home at this house thereafter and made various landscaping and site changes to the property to suit his Norwegian taste.

In 1883 Gov. Jeremiah "Uncle Jerry" Rusk bought the house for $15,000 from-the Thorps and continued its reputation for lavish social activity. In 1885, Gov. Rusk sold the house to the State of Wisconsin for a sum "not to exceed $20,000."3 Rusk left the governorship in 1889 and went to Washington to serve as Secretary of Agriculture under President Benjamin Harrison. In 1905 the name of Gates County was changed to Rusk County in his honor. In 1898 or 1899, Gov Edward Scofield added a rambling porch to the house, which has since been removed.

To establish the importance of the later history of this house would merely require the listing of all the Wisconsin governors who lived there and their accomplishments. In 1950 the house was sold to the University of Wisconsin and since then it has served, with one exception, as the residence hall for Knapp Scholarship students. The exception came in 1966 when Gov. Warren P. Knowles and his wife resided in this house for a short time while the present executive mansion was being remodeled.

At the present time, a movement is under way, under the guidance of the wife of Gov. Patrick Lucey, to require the Old Executive Mansion for the State of Wisconsin and restore it and convert it to a state museum open to the public.