

The Cabinet approved the $500,000 expansion in August 2005. In 2006, the second addition to the Mansion was completed, a new 550-square-foot (51 m 2) library for the Governor Jeb Bush and his wife, Columba Bush. The foundation was created to solicit private funding for the restoration of the mansion, its furnishings, and its grounds. The contributions of this foundation helped to make possible the first addition to the Governor's Mansion since 1957, the Florida Sun Room. The next year, she founded the Florida Governor's Mansion Foundation.

In 1979, First Lady Adele Graham, the wife of Bob Graham, began organizing tours for the mansion. Collins and his wife were actively involved in the new house's construction, and in 1957, they suggested to the state a Governor's Mansion Commission. The first governor to live in the new mansion was LeRoy Collins, in the spring of 1957. Including furnishings, the new mansion cost $350,000 and was completed a year later, in 1956. However, due to a shortfall in the state's budget, the completed home had fewer rooms than originally planned. Wyeth was told to use Andrew Jackson's home in Tennessee, The Hermitage, as a model for the exterior. Noted Palm Beach architect Marion Sims Wyeth was unanimously chosen by both the Cabinet and the Governor's Mansion Advisory Committee to design the new home. The original Florida Governor's Mansion, circa 1912. Many items in the first mansion were auctioned in 1955 to aid in furnishing the new mansion, raising $7,500. Governor Fuller Warren, who served from 1949 to 1953, referred to it as the "State Shack." The sum of $250,000 was appropriated by the Florida State Legislature in 1953 for a new mansion, and the Cabinet approved the plan in 1955. The house served fifteen governors and their families until 1955, when it was determined that a new mansion would need to be built due to a lack of enough space in the house and various structural issues. Reverend Catts brought a pig, milk cow, and chickens to the mansion during his tenure as governor. At the last meal before leaving, the Reverend Catts asked Governor Trammel, "Governor, how much rent does this place cost you?" Governor Trammel replied, "Reverend, it is provided rent-free by the taxpayers of Florida." A few weeks later, the Reverend Catts announced his candidacy for governor and was elected in 1916. Reverend Catts, during dinner the first night there, asked many questions about the mansion and inspected the entire premises, including the attic and stables. Catts, from DeFuniak Springs, was assigned by the convention committee to be the guest of Governor and Mrs. Local Baptists agreed to have as guests in their homes the delegates, or messengers as they were called, to the convention.

In the fall of 1915, West Florida Baptists held their annual convention in Tallahassee. The 1907 mansion attracted at least one candidate for governor. Henry John Klutho designed the home, with a Neoclassical exterior and a 14-room Georgian interior. In 1905, the state legislature appropriated $25,000 to construct an official residence for the governor, and the home was finished in 1907, George Saxon, a banker from Tallahassee, donated four lots on which to build the residence.

History įrom 1845 (the year Florida was admitted to the Union) to the beginning of the 20th century, governors of the state usually lived in hotels or boardinghouses. The sculpture features five life-size children and a dog playing a game of "Follow the Leader" atop three logs of a nearby fallen tree. Lawton Chiles and was dedicated to the children of Florida. The focal point of the park directly across the street from the mansion is the bronze sculpture, Florida's Finest, which was unveiled in April 1998 by then Governor and Mrs. Entrance park and Florida's Finest sculpture The Governor's Mansion curator coordinates all tour requests. The guided tours, led by trained volunteers of the Governor's Mansion Docent Program, also welcome school groups. Half-hour, public tours of the Florida Governor's Mansion are available year-round. The commission is responsible for cataloging and maintaining a descriptive, photographic inventory of the antique furnishings and articles of furniture, fixtures, and decorative objects used or displayed in the state rooms of the Governor's Mansion. The mansion's furnishings are managed by the eight-member Governor's Mansion Commission, established by the Florida Department of Management Services. State reception room in the Mansion at Christmas time.
