Georgia Governor's Mansion - Construction

Construction

The current Governor's Mansion is on property that belonged to former Atlanta mayor Robert Maddox (no relation to Lester Maddox), who owned a large English Tudor-style home on the site. A fire destroyed a large part of the house and Mr. Maddox sold the property to the state. The remainder of the home was demolished to construct the current mansion.

The Governor's Mansion is a three-level, 30-room, Greek Revival style home built in 1967. It stands on approximately 18 acres (73,000 m²) on historic West Paces Ferry Road in north-northwest Atlanta. It was designed by Georgia architect Thomas Bradbury and officially opened on January 1, 1968.

In 1975, the mansion was heavily damaged in a tornado that struck west and then north Atlanta on the morning of March 24, occurring just a week after Governor Busbee moved in after his inauguration, and necessitating a renovation. It also led to the tornado being called the "governor's tornado", the worst to hit the city until the 2008 storm that hit downtown. Later in 2008, the front door was damaged by fire during another renovation on the afternoon of September 11. The Atlanta Fire Department quickly extinguished the fire, and determined through thermal imaging that the fire had not spread inside the wall. Few people were present and nobody was injured, as it was after work hours, and the governor and his wife were away.

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