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Address: 203 Governor Street
City: Richmond
State: VA
Zip: 23319
Phone: 804-371-2642
Virginia's capital moved twice, from Jamestown to Williamsburg in 1699 to escape the mosquitoes, and in 1780 to Richmond to escape the British. In 1810, Governor John Tyler persuaded the legislature to appropriate money for a permanent residence for the governor. Except for the period of complete renovation in 1999, it has been continuously occupied since 1813, a national record. In 1954 Governor and Mrs. Thomas B. Stanley employed Charles F. Gillette to design and install a garden on the south side of the Mansion suitable for entertaining. When the house was renovated in 1999, the Garden Club of Virginia undertook the restoration of Gillette's garden. Like many of Gillette's other Virginia gardens, this one was carefully detailed and richly planted. Gillette's own plans and records, along with newspaper photographs of the garden at its original opening guided the garden restoration.
Year: 1953
Landscape Architect: Charles F. Gillette
Garden design
Year: 2000
Landscape Architect: William D. Rieley
Restoration of Charles Gillette's 1953 garden design
