Look toward the Alabama Governor's Mansion, official residence of the governor and family — currently home to Governor Kay Ivey. This is the home where the current Governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, lives. Pause and imagine a sequence of houses and decisions: prior to 1911, governors lived in private homes or local hotels, but in 1911 the state took a different course and acquired its first official residence.
That original mansion began life as a Beaux Arts brownstone, built in 1906 by Moses Sabel and located on the southwest corner of South Perry and South Streets. A special state commission, created by an act of the Alabama Legislature, purchased that Sabel home for $46,500 and authorized the acquisition of grounds and the contracting for construction, purchase, or improvement of an executive residence. Governor Emmet O'Neal was the first to occupy that house, a chapter in an evolving story that carried through the 1911–1950 period before the current mansion was acquired.
The residence you face today was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 3, 1972. From the Sabel brownstone acquired in 1911 to the residence you face today, each chapter of Montgomery history has its address on these streets and grounds.