Back in 2001, TV handyman (the original and the king) Bob Vila took a tour of the Virginia Governor’s mansion before it went through renovations – and he filmed it all.
Back in 2001, TV handyman (the original and the king) Bob Vila took a tour of the Virginia Governor’s mansion before it went through renovations – and he filmed it all.
Then-governor James Monroe signed the law which lead to the construction of the Virginia Governor’s Mansion. It was completed in 1813 and was occupied unchanged until 1906, when it went through its first renovation.
The details of the 1906 renovations are discussed in the video below, as well as the changes made in the renovations after 2004.
Notice Roxane Gilmore, wife of then-governor Jim Gilmore, taking Vila around for the tour. It’s pretty neat; touches on some of the history of the building and mimics many of the complaints most of us had about our first Fan apartments.
VaCapital.org also has a pretty neat (albeit old as hell) website which details a lot of the construction and architectural history of the Gov’s Mansion: check it out here.
