People's House

For me as a preservationist, it's been a hard week. The impending demolition of Saint Andrew's Church, and of a house on my block that does to 1884, has hit me hard and has me doing a lot of thinking.

So it was a nice contrast to that to tour the Governor's Mansion on Friday. I've lived in Minnesota my whole life and have never been inside (though I have brought Beatrix for Halloween every year, and we have a great picture of Beatrix with Governor Dayton and Bingo when he was a puppy). So when we had a chance to tour the other day, we jumped at it (Beatrix loved it too, which shows you how geeky-historical minded we are).

I'm not going to go into the whole history of the mansion, which was donated by the Dodge family so that the state would have a residence for the First Family. Instead, I would direct you to the 1006 Society website, and ensure that you know that the work on the house is paid for by this non-profit, not by taxpayer funds.

One of the things that I did not know going in was that all the artwork in the house is on loan from the MIA and MNHS. the governor's family gets to go through and pick out what they want. Apparently, Governor Dayton was quite a fan of modern art, and I would have loved to see that. The Walzes seem to be more landscape-oriented.

This piece, based on a map, was in the library. The docent claimed it was of Saint Paul, but we say NOLA....


The home is lovely, yet incredibly comfortable. We especially loved the library, the sunroom, and the side porch, where you could imagine just hanging out (you know, in all of the free time the Governor has).

I noted the contrast in the library, where there were shelves of leather-bound books contrasted with the Walz's personal volumes.

Beatrix liked the story of Herb the Mouse who lives there (wonder how he gets along with the First Cat, Afton...)

And we all loved the gardens!




Comments

Robert said…
It's definitely NOLA, south on top.
August 20, 2019 at 8:38 AM
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