- Wyoming built its first Governor's Mansion in 1905, and governors lived in it for 70 years.

It's no longer the case now, but the old house itself in Cheyenne has been beautifully restored and maintained as a museum.

I'm Steve Peck of Wyoming PBS.

This is "Wyoming Chronicle."

(uplifting music) Welcome to "Wyoming Chronicle."

We're in Cheyenne today with Christina Bird.

We're speaking from the historic Governor's Mansion, which is part of your responsibility with the state of Wyoming.

- So I'm a district manager for Wyoming State Parks Historic Sites and Trails.

I oversee the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site.

- That's in Laramie.

- That's in Laramie.

The AIMS Monument National Historic Site, National Historic Monument.

I oversee- - Which is out in the middle of nowhere kind of.

- It is, it is, at the pyramid on the planes, right?

The Historic Governor's Mansion here in Cheyenne.

The Quebec One State Historic Site.

And then I oversee Curt Gowdy State Park, - And we're here right at Christmas time.

And Christmas is something that you do upright here, don't you?

- We really, really do.

If you're looking to get into the holiday spirit, if you're looking to learn a little bit about why we celebrate the way we do, the Historic Governor's Mansion has it all.

We decorate every single room in the Historic Governor's Mansion up to it, including the restrooms.

And those are decorated per time period.

We have four different time periods running throughout this home.

And so we do decorate for say, an 1890 space, and then we'll decorate for a 1937 space, and then we'll decorate a World War II space.

And so you really get an opportunity to get some of those vintage historic sort of concepts.

- Well, people reading up in a brochure about Wyoming and see the name Historic Governor's Mansion might get the wrong impression.

The governor doesn't live here.

- No.

- The governor did live here.

- Yes.

- For 70 years or so.

- Yes.

So we had 19 first families live in the home from 1905 to 1976.

And so Governor Ed Herschler and his wife, First Lady Kathleen Herser, were the last to live here and the first to live in the new, in the, we call it the New Governor's Mansion, but it's not really, right?

- It's now 50, it's 50 years old.

- It's eligible for National Register Status to, is it itself, so, yes.

- What's the room we're in now called?

- So what we're in now is called the drawing room.

And the drawing room was renovated.

We've restored it back to a 1937 drawing room.

So the main entertainment space for the governor and his family.

And our tree, our floor to ceiling tree behind us is decorated with ornaments from the 1930s, some of them absolutely gorgeous.

And they've all been donated by local individuals around our community.

- So we can have a pretty fair sense of accuracy that this is what a 19, a very tall 1937 Christmas tree would've looked like.

- And a very elaborate, right?

A very elaborate 1937 Christmas tree.

But one of my favorite things about Christmas trees in the 1930s was just the sheer amount of tinsel.

And of course, at that time, it was lead tinsel, - Lead tinsel.

- It was leaded, it was strips of lead cut very, very fine.

And for folks who remember lead tinsel.

- Heavy, - It's very heavy and it hung differently.

And so obviously we don't bring out the lead tinsel.

- What I recall from having a natural Christmas tree brought into our house when I was a little kid, you wanted the branches to sort of open and spread.

And that, at least from what my grandmother said, was one of the reasons lead tinsel was used.

It helped the tree open up a little bit more because it weighted, weighed the branches down.

- Weighed the branches down.

- So let's go look around a little bit.

- That'd be great.

- We're entering the library here at the Historic Governor's Mansion.

I don't see a lot of books around.

Was it actually used as a a library at some point, or?

- You know, it's been used for a lot of different things.

Originally, a parlor, it was used for First Lady's office at one time.

And yes, at one time it was a library.

But we also use it during Christmas time to talk about the Victorian era of the holiday season.

And the Victorians loved the holiday.

You're seeing anywhere from 1890 to 1905 when the mansion was first built.

And so this particular Christmas tree is decorated for the late 1890s.

And you'll see everything from handmade ornaments to some early glass ornaments, you know, such as these ones wrapped in tinsel.

- Strung popcorn.

- Strung popcorn, the cranberries, the candles, which was the earliest way to light your Christmas tree.

- It just seems like it doesn't make any sense.

But that's the way it was done.

- That's the way it was done.

And if you think about it, you know, depending on the family, it was more common to cut down your Christmas tree, maybe the week of Christmas or the week before Christmas.

And so that tree would've been a lot fresher, a lot harder to burn.

Smart families usually kept a bucket of water.

- A bucket of water near the tree.

- Just in case.

And, you know, we light our Christmas tree every day, all day long.

This is not so when you were using a tree like this, you might only light it once or twice for the very special families.

- For the entire season.

- For the entire season.

And so, you're not lighting these every day.

- Also here, clearly behind us is the Wall of Governors, as you referred to it.

What we're seeing is a portrait, official portrait, of essentially, not just the governors who lived here, but every governor in the history of Wyoming.

There's Governor Gordon there.

- Right.

- Governor Mead.

There's Governor Hurshler up there who was the last to live here, the last live here.

Although a tidbit that you gave us this morning was that Governor Meade spent time here when he was a child.

Now I'm a Wyoming person.

I know what you're talking about.

But what's the story behind that?

- Well, for folks who don't know, Governor Matt Mead is the grandson of Governor Cliff Hansen.

And so when governor and First Lady Hansen lived in the home.

- This is the 1960s, mid-'60s.

- 1960s, it wasn't uncommon for the Mead children to come and have extended stays with their grandparents.

And so, you know, Governor Mead has some fond, fond stories of being, of being in this home.

And I really hope to share with you one of the best stories I've ever heard of you.

- Well, I think I know what you're talking about.

And we'll look forward, look forward to seeing that.

- We had Governor Mead at the time come open one of our street festivals that we had here at the Mansion to celebrate Statehood Day.

And as he was touring the mansion afterwards, and we were following him around, he mentioned to us that he just kind of offhand, oh, I took a trip down that laundry shoot when I was a kid.

And it's one of those moments where you say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

What happened?

And so we asked him to give us the full story.

And to his best recollection, it was a dare that his brother had dared him to try to go down the laundry shoot.

And so he did.

I asked Governor Mead what happened after he went down the laundry shoot, 'cause I cannot imagine his grandmother was thrilled.

And so he said, you know, I really don't know.

- Conveniently forgot that.

- Right (laughs).

We probably got in trouble, but I really just don't remember.

And so- - I have a house with a laundry shoot in it, and it's nothing like that.

This is, goes down, - This goes down the basement, all the way to the basement.

And so we're up on the second floor right now.

And so this is, this is quite a hall.

And I'm assuming that there was some pretty cush laundry down there, maybe from the night before, entertainment or whatnot.

But one of the best stories, you never know when these stories are gonna come out.

- You talked earlier about the First Ladies, and here we see photographs of all of them.

And this is the more recent modern day group here.

They're important figures in Wyoming as well.

- Each of these women have just been spectacular for the state of Wyoming.

And oftentimes, you know, probably more in the earlier years than maybe the later years, but spent a lot of time managing this particular household.

And so years where it may have been leaner and they might not have had as much staff, years where they had a lot of entertaining to do during legislative session.

Those first ladies really do have control over the home.

- We tend, I think, maybe to minimize the term entertaining as if they're having parties all the time.

- Right.

- This socializing, and networking, and after hours conversations, and even negotiations still very important to state government.

- Oh yeah.

- And that was the case then as well.

- It is absolutely the case.

It is relationship building.

Yes.

It is networking, it is making deals.

It's, you know, and it has to run smoothly.

A lot of our first ladies, of course, you know, through the ages, have had their own careers.

As we get into this day and age that more and more of our first ladies have, are managing a staff that is managing the household.

And so, a lot of our first ladies have just been wonderful to the state of Wyoming and have done some amazing projects for the state of Wyoming.

Mrs.

Mead with her literacy projects, Mrs.

Gordon, with her hunger initiatives.

- We've seen the portraits of more recent modern day first ladies.

Here's some of the very earliest ones.

I'm just always interested in the names.

Many of them identified here.

Here we have Carol Mead.

Jenny Gordon.

But here we have Isabella Wonder, Camela, and Mary, Tory, Allen, Thayer, going by four names.

I love the portraits.

I love the names.

Maybe the most beautiful name of a Wyoming first lady ever.

Ellen Elizabeth Moonlight.

- Yes.

- So there was a Governor Moonlight.

- There was a Governor Moonlight.

And what I love about her portrait is she looks so serene, so solemn.

But, and even though it's in black and white, you could probably tell that she had bright blue, beautiful blue eyes.

- Probably right about that.

- You know, and what really is I think, impactful about these women coming out to a brand new state, or even in some cases a brand new territory must have been just a real adventure.

- Sure.

Mrs.

Moonlight here, this is before statehood.

- Yes.

- There were territorial governors.

They're honored here as well.

- Yeah.

Well, and I believe Mrs.

Thayer was also first lady of the state of Nebraska.

And so, Mr.

Thayer just was also territorial governor of Nebraska.

- Just working his way West (laughs).

- Working his way west during the Christmas season, what else happens here?

You welcome people in and they can do things this time of year that they don't necessarily do the rest of the year?

- Yes, actually.

So we do usually do an opening reception for this exhibit.

This exhibit gets a new theme every year.

And we do an opening exhibit, and then we do things like after hours events.

We'll keep the mansion open later in the evening because really to come and see the home when it's all lit up, it's spectacular.

You wanna do it at night.

- You wanna do it at night.

I mean, the Christmas trees are most gorgeous in the evening and at night when it's dark.

And then we do run a series of children's teas, and we, you know, we have a craft project that they usually do, just something to get them in the Christmas spirit.

And it's an opportunity to, you know, keep a legacy that the first ladies have had for years since we've been in existence, of having teas inside the historic governor's mansion.

And so we like to continue that tradition.

We have the kids come in and they learn something and hopefully get to, you know, get some hot chocolate and some tea and have some fun.

- What's the bedroom space here?

- Bedroom space is interesting.

Now, this home has, in 1905 had a lot more bedrooms.

And so we did do a remodel in the '30s and took out some of those bedrooms.

But what's really interesting about this home is that it had indoor plumbing in 1905.

It also had electricity.

And so I love it when visitors come and they talk to me about, you know, having to have candles or lanterns, or- - Where was the outhouse?

- There, you know, where was the outhouse when they first moved in?

And I love talking about how, how Cheyenne was so very metropolitan in the late 1800s, and had some of the first electricity in the nation.

- Well, it's one of the great railroad cities in the country, and especially was then, and that meant the world was at your disposal in a way.

Because you could get anything here.

One of the interesting pictures that I've seen, maybe you'll show it to us, was of a bathroom, which reminded me of my grandparents' house.

I maybe it was from about the '30s.

And that's one of the things you've, you make a point of preserving, here's what it was like if you lived here, then here's what it would've been like at least in this room.

Here's what a kitchen was like at the time.

What, in some ways, you went backwards.

Here we have the oldest period decor in a bedroom, which you said was- - 1905.

- 1905 when the house was new.

We have Christmas decorations here for the Christmas theme from the great 1960s, "Charlie Brown Christmas" TV special, all combined in one.

I don't mind saying I love it (host laughs) And I love seeing these.

It's a wonderful jumble that works.

- Yeah, it is.

And I think he knows some of the best music came out of that Christmas special from that "Charlie Brown" episode, yep.

- So this was a bedroom that, this was not one of the ones that was reduced, or it was?

- This is not one of the ones that was reduced.

And so this is an original 19, well, restored to the original 1905 bedroom.

- Very spacious bedroom for any- - Very spacious.

- Even today it would be.

But then.

- Yes, very spacious.

And we have, you know, we have a great story about the two middle children of Governor Brooks who lived here.

And so they chose, apparently they had an option to choose their own bedroom.

They chose this bedroom very specifically because after 1906, they had an opportunity to bring down their pony from their ranch in Casper.

And of course, where do the ponies live?

The ponies live in the carriage house, which is just outside this window.

So they had an opportunity to open the windows and yell out to their pony in the morning.

And so those particular kids have some just fantastic stories.

We are in what I would call historic old Cheyenne.

We're near the state capitol.

We're near the state museum.

We're near the state library, the Supreme Court.

So where we aren't is out adjacent to Interstate 25.

Whereas people are driving by saying, hey, look, let's stop there.

People who come here I imagine, decide they want to come here.

And so you get some, some appreciative visitors.

- Yes.

I think the most unique type of visitors that we get are the visitors that want to see the governor's residents in all 50 states.

And so it's fascinating to talk to people who wanna come to the residence and how they find us and why they wanna come.

And so people enjoy going, you know, as they travel, going to visit the historic governor's residence in all of the states across the nation; we get a lot of foreign visitors, and especially in December, we get a lot of families, a lot of our community comes in, and that's wonderful because it becomes a Christmas tradition for those folks.

And so we love, we love the visitors who come here.

- What do we know about governor's residences in other states, let's say the states around Wyoming.

What do they do in Colorado?

There's a governor's residence there, or?

- There is, there is a governor's residence there.

So what's unique about us is that we were built by the state of Wyoming.

And so this structure was funded through the state legislature through a mill levy tax; in the state of Colorado, for example, their residence was donated to the state.

And that historic residence is close to the capitol building, and their governor does still live in that residence.

And so it's unique to have a historic residence and an additional residence where the new executive, where the executive lives today.

- Does every state have an official governor's residence as far as you know?

I would think yes.

- No.

And I would have to do a double check, but there are a handful of states that do not have an official executive residence, but most of them do.

- Yeah.

Wyoming statehood 1890.

And there was a governor then.

- Yes.

- This house opened, I think you said 15 years after that.

Where did the poor governor live before then?

- So the governor was required to live in Cheyenne in the capital city while he was being governor of the state.

And so, the governor rented local properties, or if he had friends, you know, who traveled, he might have an opportunity to stay in their home or, you know, worst case scenario, he might have a suite at a local hotel.

And so it became, it became important for the governor to have, you know, to have that entertaining capacity and to have an executive residence that he would be able to live in.

- So through the years, this house has seen some things.

- Oh yeah.

- Tell us a little, some of your favorites.

A couple of your favorite anecdotes about maybe who visited or why.

- Or Nelly Tayloe Ross.

When Ms.

Ross was governor of our great state, her- - The first woman to be a governor of a state in the nation.

- First woman to, - And still Wyoming's only, - And Wyoming's only, of course, she both served as first lady when her governor, when her husband was governor.

And then of course during her own term as governor.

- And she was elected in her own right.

- She was, she was elected in her own right.

She of course had sons living in home.

And so she was a widowed mother.

There were three boys.

And her youngest son brought home, I believe it was a kitten or a puppy.

And the poor woman had to explain to her son why he couldn't keep said puppy or kitten because as governor for the state of Wyoming, she was far too busy to help him take care of this poor animal.

And so, you know, I can imagine for the kids who lived here, it was a little bit more challenging maybe than for the governors themselves.

- And there have been plenty of actual families there have living here.

- Yeah.

There have.

- Who was, what was the biggest, - Biggest family was the first family to live here.

And that was the Brooks family.

They were from Casper.

And Bryant B. Brooks brought his children down to live.

There were four girls and a boy.

- Wow.

- So a lot of children.

And they ranged in age from nine all the way up to, I believe his oldest served as his secretary for a little while.

- Christina, we're upstairs.

Now this is the room you've described as the sun porch.

- Yeah.

- What is it, when did it arrive, and why is it here?

- Yeah, so this is one of the last additions to the home in the 1950s.

The sun porch was added on to give the first family just a little bit more of that indoor outdoor sort of space.

And one of the greatest features of the sun porch, obviously, you know, the tile is very reminiscent of the 19, late 1950s, early 1960s.

The wood paneling very reminiscent of that mid-century time period.

But what's really unique about this room is the window.

- So if you take a look at the window from the other side, you probably would not really think anything of it.

It is an original window.

It's in the original plans.

- And that was an exterior wall at that time.

- Was an exterior wall at that time, but if you really look closely, it is bisected by the staircase to the third floor, right?

So completely original.

And we believe that this window was placed here to get as much natural northern light onto the staff stairs, - The dark old stairs.

- Yeah, onto the staff staircase as much as possible.

But it's very unique because you can really see from an outside perspective what that window would've looked like.

- So that dates to 1905.

- It does, or so it does.

And I can see right here it has the great old glass, which solid as glass seems to be very gradually shifts form and you can see it sort of drooped a little bit there.

You have some Christmas decorations up here.

You have tables and chairs.

What's a typical use for the sun ports these days?

- Well, during the month of December we turn this into our reception area.

And so we host our evening reception here, and then we also host our children's teas here.

And so it gives the kids an opportunity to be actually have tea inside of the historic governor's mansion.

It's one of the very few tea events we do every year.

- Christine, I don't think any visit to any home is complete without seeing the kitchen.

And here in the Historic Governor's Mansion, there's a great one.

- Yeah.

- Tell us about the stove that we're standing in front of, for example.

- So this is a 1938 magic chef stove.

It is not the original stove to this kitchen, but it is the exact make and model they had here when they restored, when they renovated the house in 1938.

And so, you know, you have to be much smarter than I am to work a stove like this.

It is natural gas.

Several ovens.

Warming ovens.

And so it's, it had all the bells and whistles to be able to take care of the entertainment entertaining needs here at the historic governors.

- So it's decades old.

And in it's way out of date.

But I doubt there are too many people who wouldn't love having it.

- Oh my god, yes.

- Figure out how to work it just, just fabulous.

- It is an absolutely fabulous stove.

And if you're looking for a stove to entertain you, you really can't beat one like this.

- We talked for a moment about the staff staircase.

- Yes.

- Was there typically a cook for the governor, or did that change from administration to administration?

- It really did change from administration to administration, but it wasn't atypical to have a cook on site here.

And so even in the later years we had a cook who had a basement apartment.

She and her husband had a basement apartment I see here in the mansion.

And she did all of the cooking for the site.

And so, not uncommon, this really ends up being like in any home, the nerve center of the operations of the entire house.

- Now the kitchen has been restored.

You mentioned 1938.

So the rest of the decor generally is from that period as well.

- Yes.

- And you mentioned among other things, there's steel countertop.

- Yes.

- Which I wouldn't have guessed was standard equipment in the 1930s, but you say it was.

- Yeah, in 1937 when they restored, when they renovated the home, they did put in the steel countertops.

All of the white cabinetry in the kitchen on this section of the kitchen is also original.

And so, you know, all it takes is a little bit of buffing and your countertop looks like new.

- I think you said when we first got here that when the Hurshers left there was gold shag carpeting.

- Yeah.

Wall to wall gold carpeting.

Oh my goodness.

Not true now.

And interestingly enough, you know, that wall to wall shag carpeting or the wall to wall gold carpeting did a lot to preserve the underlying structure.

So when they carpeted in 1937, they carpeted over some of the original tile in the foyer, and it helped to preserve that tile so that we, you know, when we were doing the restoration, we were able to unveil that.

- We were kind of glad it was there.

- Yeah.

Kind of glad it was there.

So we've been able to do it based on photographs and other things that we have of the mansion.

Interestingly enough for being such a public building, we don't have a lot of photos of private spaces.

- I suppose the day will ever come when you'll think, you know, the Hershlers have been gone now for 50 years.

We better put some gold shag carpeting back in somewhere.

- Oh my gosh.

- 'cause everything eventually becomes historic.

- System comes back into style.

Well, and it comes back into style.

Right.

Maybe, maybe.

You know, we have been talking a lot about putting our sun porch back to the 1960s, and so we've got some great furniture, yellow, gold, and brown.

If you remember some of the late '60s and early '70s sort of furniture, that'll take you right back.

(laughs) - A museum like this really brings home the fact that human beings, we aren't the only people who've ever been on planet earth.

- Lot of people before us and real people lived here - And sat in that chair and washed their hands at that sink and sat at that table to eat and looked at a Christmas tree like this, and visiting here.

You can see that and be reminded of it.

- Yeah.

- And be connected to it And be immersed in it.

I mean, there are not many there, there are not many places where you can walk into the room and be surrounded by the furniture, the things, the items, and see a full setup and be, and really be in immersed in a different time period.

- I have a feeling you must love it here.

- I do.

You know, this is where I first started.

My career with Wyoming State Parks, and even though I'm not the superintendent of this mansion anymore, it just holds a special place in my heart.

- Really glad you were our host, and thanks for being with us on Wyoming Chronicle.

- Thank you very much.

(upbeat music)