SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown, who chose an apartment over mansion life when he was governor before, now plans to move into the historic Governor’s Mansion in downtown Sacramento, likely late this year or early next year.
His move will follow the completion of a months-long renovation of the residence, which is expected to be finished by the end of the year, Brown’s office said Friday.
The governor and his wife, Anne Gust Brown, will give up their rented loft in downtown Sacramento.
The mansion, purchased by the state in 1903 and now maintained as a state park and museum, has not housed a governor since Ronald Reagan in 1967.
When Brown signed a budget last year that included $2.5 million for renovations at the mansion, his office said he had “no immediate plans” to move in. That appeared to change this year, however, with an additional $1.6 million appropriated for the project and the renovation growing to include security improvements. The administration considered the building a possible home for Brown and future governors.
California is one of only a handful of states without a permanent governor’s residence — the lack of which has been a source of consternation for years to Sacramento-based politicians.
The historic mansion housed 13 governors before falling into disrepair. After Ronald and Nancy Reagan moved out of the building in 1967, Reagan supporters built a new mansion in Carmichael. But Reagan left office before he could move in, and his successor, Brown, chose to live in an apartment on N Street instead.
In more recent years, Govs. George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson and Gray Davis lived in a ranch home in the Lake Wilhaggin neighborhood east of the city. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stayed in a suite at the Hyatt Regency Sacramento.
Funds for the historic mansion’s renovation are from proceeds from the sale of the Carmichael mansion, Brown’s office said.
Brown now splits time between his home in the Oakland hills and the upscale Sacramento loft.
He never lived in the old mansion. His father, Edmund G. “Pat” Brown, was elected governor in 1958, after Brown had left home for seminary and college. But he studied for the California bar exam at the mansion, and he has expressed fondness for it in his later years.
When Brown won re-election last November, he held his election night gathering at the historic residence.
