Qualla: West Virginia Governor's Mansion

West Virginia Governor's Mansion: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David G. Simpson, Public domain. Walk through the front door and the floor is the giveaway. The black-and-white marble checkerboard, the dual staircases sweeping up from the foyer, the careful symmetry - this entryway was modeled on the White House, scaled down and set on the south bank of the Kanawha River. Charleston architect Walter F. Martens designed the West Virginia Governor's Mansion to look like the kind of place a Founding Father might have built, even though it was finished in 1925, more than a century after most of them were dead.

Image: David G. Simpson | Public domain

West Virginia Governor's Mansion: Colonial Revival on the Kanawha

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Analogue Kid, CC BY-SA 3.0. Martens chose the Colonial Revival style - sometimes called Georgian Revival - because by the 1920s it was the architectural language of governing in America. Red brick walls. A white columned portico over the front door. Sash windows lined up in tight, even rows. The mansion was...

Image: Analogue Kid | CC BY-SA 3.0

West Virginia Governor's Mansion: Inside the Rooms

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Enrichyourmind, CC BY-SA 3.0. The first floor was designed for entertaining: a drawing room for receptions, a ballroom for dances, a state dining room for visiting dignitaries, a library, a sitting room. The second floor belongs to the governor and the governor's family - bedrooms, private offices, the quiet ...

Image: Enrichyourmind | CC BY-SA 3.0

West Virginia Governor's Mansion: The Manchin Renovations

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Analogue Kid at en.wikipedia, Public domain. By 2005, the mansion was eighty years old and showing it. Governor Joe Manchin announced a major repair and remodeling project, citing structural defects in the building. The first estimate was 1.2 million dollars, funded by leftover campaign money and private donations rather th...

Image: Analogue Kid at en.wikipedia | Public domain

West Virginia Governor's Mansion: A House in Use

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Enrichyourmind, CC BY-SA 3.0. What makes the West Virginia Governor's Mansion different from many surviving historic homes is that it is still doing its job. Governors and their families have lived here without interruption for a century, raising children behind the columned portico, hosting state dinners in ...

Image: Enrichyourmind | CC BY-SA 3.0