Since it opened in 1968, the Pennsylvania Governor’s Mansion has stood as a deliberate statement of state pride—and a beacon of resilience. “It was the first one that was actually built to be a governor’s residence,” explains David Morrison of the Historic Harrisburg Association. Prior to its construction, gubernatorial families lived in purchased townhouses on Harrisburg’s Front Street, retrofitted to serve their needs. When the Commonwealth decided it needed a purpose-built home—complete with security features, public meeting rooms, and private living quarters—it commissioned architect George Ewing to evoke early American manor houses like William Penn’s Pennsbury Manor and Virginia’s colonial estates.

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