- City:
- Rapid City, SD
- Site Type:
- Civic Facilities, Auxiliary Civic Facilities
- New Deal Agencies:
- Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Completed:
- 1936
- Quality of Information:
- Moderate
- Site Survival:
- Unknown
Description
WPA crews built the South Dakota Governor’s Mansion in 1936 in the capitol city of Pierre. In 2004, it was purchased and moved 175 miles to Rapid City, but in 2013 was sold at a foreclosure auction. It remains privately owned, and serves as an event hall. From a local Rapid City television station report in 2008:
The current owner paid around $40,000 for the mansion 16 of South Dakota’s governors called home. It cost him five times that to have the property moved from Pierre to Rapid City. Now, instead of being home to South Dakota’s first families, it’s open to the public, for just about any event you can dream up.
It’s been home to Janklows, the Anderson family, the Wollmans and the Kneips, along with 11 other of South Dakota’s first families. Built in Pierre in 1936, The Old Governor’s Mansion served as a home for South Dakota governors for 66 years before it was put up for auction. It sat vacant for two years before Dr. Leon Brodie purchased it and moved it to its new location near Rapid City, where it now serves a much different purpose.
Source notes
National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Work Projects Administration, Information Service, Primary File, 1936-42, Box 6, Folder 210-A. Karla Ramaekers, "The 'New' Old Governor's Mansion," Keloland TV, August 12, 2008, accessed July 29, 2015. Joe O'Sullivan, "Old governor's mansion sells at auction," Rapid City Journal, August 23, 2013, accessed July 29, 2015.Site originally submitted by Brent McKee - wpatoday.org on July 28, 2015.
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