Home to 14 governors, the California Governor's Mansion in Sacramento rises in front of you. This is a thirty-room, three-story Second Empire-Italianate Victorian mansion built in 1877. The house was built for local hardware merchant Albert Gallatin and sold to businessman Joseph Steffens, father of journalist Lincoln Steffens, in 1887.
In 1903 the State of California purchased the estate to serve as the governor's mansion, and it has since served as the executive residence for 14 governors. Governors occupied it between 1903 and 1967, and again from 2015 to 2019. In 1967 ownership was transferred to California State Parks, establishing the Governor's Mansion State Historic Park, and the property has been managed by State Parks since then.
Inside, many original furnishings remain: George C. Pardee's 1902 Steinway piano, velvet chairs and sofas that belonged to Governor Hiram Johnson, and Persian rugs bought by the wife of Earl Warren. Stand here and imagine the comings and goings across decades of state leadership, the layered voices in these rooms, and the way the building itself carries those stories. Notice the mansion and its grounds spreading beyond this historic entrance.