Texas Governor's Mansion

The oldest continuously occupied executive residence west of the Mississippi, this Greek Revival mansion was completed in 1856 and has housed every Texas governor since. The elegant home has survived a devastating arson attack in 2008 and has accumulated spirits from over 160 years of Texas political history.

The Texas Governor's Mansion, built under the direction of architect Abner Cook in 1856, is the oldest of its kind west of the Mississippi. Its Greek Revival columns have witnessed the administrations of every Texas governor—and according to many accounts, some of those leaders never left.

On June 8, 2008, the mansion nearly vanished forever when an unknown arsonist threw a Molotov cocktail onto the front porch. Officials estimate ten more minutes of burning would have destroyed the historic landmark. Governor Rick Perry had moved out in 2007 for scheduled renovations, and fortunately, workers had already removed all furnishings—including Sam Houston's famous four-poster bed. The Legislature appropriated $21.5 million for restoration. To this day, no culprit has been arrested.

Sam Houston is the mansion's most famous ghost. As governor in 1861, he paced these floors while contemplating whether Texas should secede from the Union. His full-bodied apparition has been spotted in the bedroom he occupied, where his mahogany four-poster bed still resides. Visitors have seen the old hero's image vanish when spoken to. In the mid-1980s, Governor Mark White's wife and daughter encountered Houston's presence—Elizabeth White stated that something about that bedroom frightened her so much she avoided it entirely.

The ghost of Governor Pendleton Murrah's nephew also haunts the mansion. During the Civil War, the young man shot himself in an upstairs room on the north side of the building after an attractive female guest spurned his marriage proposal. His sobbing moans are the most common reported phenomenon, along with muddled echoes and phantom footsteps. Those sensitive to residual energies claim he is most active on Sundays—the day he took his own life. One former governor found the disturbances so frustrating he had the room sealed off, though this did not stop the noises.

A maid's ghost is seen crying at the front door—reportedly a staff member dismissed for becoming pregnant while unmarried. Cold spots drift through varying locations, doorknobs rattle without cause, and many visitors report feelings of dread.