The Old Governor’s Mansion, located in the heart of Milledgeville, has been transformed into a museum as a way to remember its past, with its modern existence reflecting the political complexities of early America.
The mansion today is filled with collected artifacts, with the intention of preserving the history of its earliest inhabitants. Tours of the mansion are held during the week and during holidays to uphold its historical influence on the state. Weekly tours run from Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sundays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Georgia governors resided in the Old Governor’s Mansion from 1939 to 1986 before it was seized and abandoned. At the time, Milledgeville was Georgia’s first state capital. The first of eight governors that lived here was Governor Georgia R. Gilmer, and the last was Governor Charles Jones Jenkins.
In 1864, General William T. Sherman’s Union army converged and passed through Milledgeville during their “March to the Sea,” burning military infrastructure as a way to break the Confederacy down. The Old Governor’s Mansion served as General Sherman’s headquarters.
America’s deep political history is thus remembered by the museum today. Students, even outside of the history department, have been encouraged to visit the museum through online promotion. GCSU’s website has a section dedicated to the Old Governor’s Mansion. It includes tour information, upcoming events and more.
“Contextualizing the things around us is one way to get interested in history and to sort of understand how we’ve gotten to where we are now,” said James Welborn, a professor of history.
“I think more broadly, thinking historically is thinking critically. If you’re doing that about the past and its issues, then you’re kind of training your brain to do that in the present.”
The political complexities remembered by the Old Governor’s Mansion, specifically, relate to slavery and the collapse of the Southern political structure. Enslaved African Americans lived and worked there, leading up to and during the Civil War. After the war ended, the capital was then moved to Atlanta and ceased to be the governor’s quarters.
“So many students say that they thought the mansion would be boring, but it ended up being one of their favorite assignments of the semester,” said Jessica Wallace, a professor of history.
GCSU prides itself in its first building being the Old Governor’s Mansion, back in 1889, because of its symbolism to Milledgeville’s deep historical roots. The building initially served as a dormitory, but since 2001, the state of Georgia and GCSU have put significant efforts into restoring it.
Since then, the structure has earned nine awards, with the most notable being the “National Historic Landmark Building” and “Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums” awards. This further emphasizes its true influence, not just locally, but nationally.
“I’ve heard that it’s really cool, I have a friend who’s also a history major and works there and she said she’s learned a lot about history in the area just from working there,” said Chloe Melton, a junior history major. “I’d be interested in a holiday event. I think it’d be really cool to host history guest lectures there.”
The next upcoming holiday event is “Prance N’ Dance” and it is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 15 from 6-9 p.m. Tickets are running at $35 per person and are available on GCSU’s official website. A previous hit was the “Death After Dark Tours” hosted in October in light of Halloween.