[By Carol Graham Beck, Mansion Curator · Photographs courtesy of the Governor's Mansion Foundation. ]

This Young House... The Governor's Mansion at Forty-Eight

The single most asked-about and historic object at the Florida Governor's Mansion enjoys a celebrated past which began with great pageantry aboard a battleship almost a century ago. The sterling-silver punch bowl is one of a 47-piece presentation silver collection designed by The Gorham Company. On behalf of the citizens of Florida, Governor Albert W. Gilchrist formally presented the entire collection to Captain H.S. Knapp aboard the Battleship USS Florida at its dedication in Pensacola harbor, December 18, 1911. The collection remained on board the battleship for 20 years, and was used extensively by commanding officers to entertain dignitaries in port and at sea. Today, visitors who come to the main entrance hall of the Florida Governor's Mansion at 700 North Adams Street see the largest silver tray, incised with an image of the battleship and the inscription: Presented to the USS Florida by the People of Florida. The punch bowl and other large, sterling silver hollow-ware pieces such as the centerpiece, fruit bowl and coffee urn, hold a permanent place of honor in the State Dining Room where they have been used and displayed since coming to the original Governor's Mansion in 1931.

Florida school children, who come every year by the thousands to visit the Mansion, were actively engaged in 1910 in the effort to raise the money needed to ensure that Florida was not without its own distinguished battleship silver collection. In keeping with a naval tradition that continues even today, American naval vessels were originally presented exquisite sterling silver collections, created by the leading silverware companies of the day, for two primary reasons. First: there was great prestige associated with these collections. It was believed that the finest ships deserved the finest objects, and this was considered a way in which the American Navy could prove it had the finesse and status of its European allies. Secondly: it afforded the citizens of various states a sense of civic pride, by which they could affirm the power and prestige of the nation, their own state, and their state's battleship.

The current Governor's Mansion itself is a relatively young home, by preservation standards. Completed in January 1957 in time for the Inaugural Open House of Governor LeRoy Collins, the building is now two years away from qualifying for the National Registrar of Historic Places at age fifty. Palm Beach architect, Marion Sims Wyeth, classically-trained at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, was challenged to create a residence that "served a dual purpose...it had to be formal and livable too. It was the hardest job to conceive." Wyeth was charged with incorporating many of the classical, Greek-revival style features of The Hermitage into the design of the Mansion, a deferential nod to the home place of Florida's first territorial governor, Andrew Jackson. Less well-known is the fact that First Lady Mary Call Collins' great-grandparents, Mary and Richard Keith Call, eloped and were married at the Hermitage, with "Old Hickory" himself, in attendance.

When visitors pass through the front doors of the Mansion into the State Entrance Hall, the ambience of an elegant, 18th century English home is most striking. The first Mansion curator, Colonial Williamsburg decorative arts expert James Cogar, recognized the importance of creating a suitable interior for the governor's new home. In a letter dated June 18, 1956 to the Governor's Mansion Committee, Cogar wrote:

"My overall plan for the Governor's Mansion would be to have it a dignified interior, painted in a harmonious color scheme, furnished in good taste with pieces of character, and although an official residence, give to it the feel that it is a gracious home of quiet beauty that would please but not overpower those that were entertained there."