It’s out of the loft and into to the mansion for Gov. Jerry Brown and his wife, Anne Gust Brown.
California’s first couple have announced that they will leave the modern, downtown Sacramento digs they’ve occupied for the past five years to live in the California Governor’s Mansion. The Browns’ dogs, Sutter and Colusa, will also make the move.
It’ll be the first time in almost 50 years that a governor has occupied the historic mansion, which is now the centerpiece of a state park.
The Victorian mansion was built in 1877 by businessman Joe Steffens and sold to the state in 1903, for $32,500. It’s undergoing a $4 million renovation that is on track to be finished by the end of the year. The Browns will move in soon afterward.
The last Governor to live in the 30-room Sacramento house was Ronald Reagan. But Reagan moved out after just four months, with his wife, Nancy Reagan, saying it was unsafe, and calling the home “a noisy firetrap.”
Gov. Jerry Brown’s father – Edmund “Pat” Brown – was the last governor to live in the mansion for his entire term. A total of 13 California governors have lived in the house.
Taking up residence in the mansion will be a fairly radical departure for Jerry Brown, who has shunned many of the trappings of office during his four terms as governor. During his first two terms in the 1970s, Brown rented a small apartment near the Capitol and famously slept on a mattress on the floor.