Government Records
The records not only document all aspects of the administration and operation of the Council, they also cover the policy decisions made with regard to the legislature's unprecedented 1965 acceptance of the mansion to be used as the governor's official residence; the continuing plans and actions undertaken to renovate and preserve the Residence, including its 1974 placement on the National Register of Historic Places; the documentation of both its many furnishings and events held in the Residence; and historical documentation of the Residence and its occupants.
Included in the records are historical materials detailing the history of both the Irvine family and the Residence; minutes of the full council and its predecessors and files documenting its various committees; financial, operational and planning documents; subject files; renovation work files; furnishings' inventory and acquisition files; and photographs taken before, during, and after various phases of the renovation.
The subject files detail both the renovation and operation of the Residence and, in particular, document the acquisition of furnishings through gifts, loans and purchases; decorations and flowers; personnel; fund-raising; the Governor's Residence Preview Benefit; invitations and promotional materials; the Irvine family; mailing lists; Paul Granlund's Viet Nam commemoration sculpture, Man-Nam; "Minnesota's House," a multi-media pictorial essay; the Minnesota Historical Society's Women's Organization oral history project of Residence occupants; public relations; research; the tableware competition; 1006 Summit Avenue Society; tours; and William Channing Whitney, the original architect of the Residence.
Also included in the records are guest books; tour schedules and Residence daily/weekly schedules; clippings; the Minnesota Garden Memorial scrapbook; files of Maureen McKazy-Donlin, council member and chair; and photographs of the Rolvaag, LeVander, Anderson (Wendell), Perpich, Quie, and Carlson families that were displayed in the residence.
The collection is organized into the following sections:
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the
Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics
should
Accession numbers: 979-40; 983-112; 985-20; 999-114; 2000-68; 2001-63; 2002-68; 2010-13
Catalog ID number: 001736420
Includes fact sheets, timelines, statutes and correspondence relating to the historical development of the council.
Includes deed between Clotilde I. Moles and Edwin J. Moles, her husband, and Olivia I. Dodge and Arthur M. Dodge, her husband, and the State of Minnesota, August 31, 1965.
Brochure on the history of the Governor’s Residence. Photographs show the room by room renovations done under the Harold LeVander and Wendell Anderson administrations.
Research paper written by Patricia Baker (curator-historian for the Governor’s Residence) detailing the history of the Residence. The paper traces both the history of the Irvine family and the building at 1006 Summit Avenue from its construction through its transfer to the state of Minnesota and the establishment of the permanent State Ceremonial Building Council in 1980. This paper was widely used under the Albert Quie and Rudy Perpich administrations to provide background information for the council, docents and all involved in the renovation program.
Minutes, proposals and objectives of the council during the Quie years.
Minutes, project descriptions, timelines and work plans for the council during the Quie years.
Minutes, correspondence, and work plans for the executive committee as well as the mission statement for the council.
Minutes, agendas, policy proposals, work plans, reports to the council, and correspondence. The 1994 and 1998-1999 minutes are very incomplete.
Minutes and meeting agendas of the committee.
Minutes, project summaries, long range plans and correspondence.
Minutes, correspondence, art descriptions and loan agreements with various art museums, and undated photographs and negatives of the dining room.
Minutes and agendas of the development, fund-raising and capital campaign meetings, as well as, member rosters, correspondence, and goal statements.
Minutes, correspondence, and committee goal outlines.
Minutes, correspondence, timeline of the history of the garden and phasing plan for the garden, architectural designs, contract proposals and construction cost estimates.
Minutes of an April 21, 1982 meeting and officer nomination recommendations for 1986.
Minutes, organizational charts, and correspondence.
Minutes, correspondence, and undated photographs of council members taken at the mansion.
Minutes, mission statement, and correspondence; also the National Association of State Facilities Administrators [NASFA] state survey results regarding the existence and conditions of governor’s residences throughout the country.
Mainly monthly, biennial and historical budget analyses of the council’s financial management reports. The records also include operating fund reports and account balance summaries.
Includes correspondence pertaining to the audit.
Contains inventories of gift fund receipts, certified liquidation summaries, appropriation inquiries, yearly account summaries, and statewide accounting system managers financial fiscal year reports. The records also include some correspondence.
Details all encumbrances for the Governor’s Residence Council from May 9, 1989 through May 22, 1990.
Includes council bylaws, mission statements, operating procedures, policy statements, job descriptions, and correspondence pertaining to the functions of the council.
Includes notices of appointment for council members as well as relevant correspondence.
Correspondence reflecting the work of individual council members, the full council, and its sub-committees.
Update issued on a monthly basis for committee members about the progress of the council. Newsletters are incomplete.
Provides background information on the history of the home, work done on the house during the LeVander and Anderson administrations, and ends with the changes that began with the Quie family’s occupancy of the home.
Restoration plan for the Residence prepared by Wehrman Chapman Associates with color-coded floor plans, work plan summaries, and cost estimates.
Fund-raising brochure for the restoration project.
Includes project summary and project priority statements from the council and relevant correspondence.
Booklet prepared by Winsor/Faricy Architects, Inc.; details the restoration plan for the Residence during the Perpich administration.
Provides a detailed renovation plan with cost and phasing plans.
Architectural bids for Governor’s Residence Master Plan Update.
Records are arranged in alphabetical order by folder title.
Includes photographs of furnishings purchased for the home under the Perpich administration.
Includes appraisals of the Irvine home and its contents.
Contains photographs of floral arrangements used in the Residence.
Documents the books given for the renovation of the library.
Includes photographs of students, from the International Falls School District No. 361, building grandfather clocks, one of which was donated to the Governor’s Residence.
Contains signed gift forms from donors and related correspondence. Includes both cash and in-kind gifts to the council.
Organized by fiscal year.
Hand calligraphied book; documents each piece on loan in the house, its location and its donor for the period of time noted.
Includes photocopy of the nomination form and other related documents.
Contains photographs and information about the Halloween decorations at the Residence.
Concerns the preservation of the Residence as an historic site.
Includes Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota Historical Society, and Tweed Gallery.
Contains information on Paul Granlund and the Vietnam tribute sculpture (entitled Man-Nam) he created for the lawn of the Governor’s Residence. Also contains correspondence from First Lady Iantha LeVander regarding the project.
A multi-media pictorial essay on the Residence designed by Russell-Manning Productions.
Contains correspondence, a photographic contact sheet, slide list and other related records.
Idea proposal containing possible photographs of the Residence and its contents.
Project undertaken by the Minnesota Historical Society’s Women’s
Organization to interview as many occupants of the Residence as
possible. Some of the materials was used in the book,
Includes notes from an interview with Mary Anderson and Norma Sommerdorf, a transcript from an interview with Mary Anderson conducted by Patty Baker, and recipes submitted by Governor and Mrs. Wendell R. Anderson.
Includes transcript of interview conducted with Olivia Dodge, recipes enjoyed by the Irvine family, and related correspondence.
Transcript of a March 3, 1981 interview with Flahaven, former Residence manager.
Transcript of an interview (conducted by Patty Baker) with Hilma LeDell, employee of the Irvine family during the 1920s.
March 5, 1980 interview.
Includes transcripts of several interviews with Mrs. Harold LeVander and related records.
Includes written descriptions of the Quie years at the Governor’s Residence.
Transcript of a December 9, 1982 interview and an 1981 interview.
Includes transcript of interview conducted with Mrs. Karl Rolvaag, and related notes, correspondence and newspaper clippings.
Includes photographs of donations being considered for the Residence.
Includes purchase orders for work done on the Residence and its contents. Purchase orders are alphabetized by company name.
Includes informational articles and outlines to aid in fund-raising efforts.
Includes correspondence documenting a dispute with regard to landscape services rendered to the council by Rice Creek Gardens.
Documents the Governor’s Tableware Competition conducted by Gretchen Quie. Includes newspaper clippings describing Charles Halling’s winning design to be used at the Residence. Halling was a Northfield, Minnesota potter.
A fund-raising organization to help preserve, maintain and restore the Governor’s Residence in cooperation with the Council.
Signed by Governor Rudy Perpich on April 12.
The scrapbooks contain general news clippings and information about the house; thank-you notes from the First Lady for new items and other home improvements; invitations to annual preview benefits, meetings, and tours; and the Society’s minutes (with the exception of the 1988-1990 volume) and newsletters (scattered). Unique items are listed for each scrapbook.
The information in each scrapbook is divided by year, with the exception of the 1981-1982 Quie book, which is by subject.
1006 Summit Avenue Society proposed bylaws, accounts, materials
relating to Gretchen Quie’s
News clippings, pictures, and programs from the April 9, 1987
American Craft Expo, press releases and selected recipes from
Lola Perpich’s
1006 Summit Avenue Society Day (April 13, 1989) materials;
volunteer packet from the 1988 16th International Home Economics
Federation Congress; 1989 articles concerning the possible sale
of the mansion, suspension of tours, and Governor Perpich’s
choice to run for re-election; Governor’s mansion tins; a 1990
interview with Lola Perpich; correspondence, news clippings, and
luncheon invitation relating to Lola Perpich’s
Articles on the food poisoning of guests at the mansion; lists, with dates and prices, of gifts to the Governor’s residence; 1991 Society officers list; photographs of the May 1994 fashion luncheon and 1994, 1995 Christmas parties; 1994 proposed bylaws amendments; membership rosters (1992, 1993); and 1993 wish list.
Articles on Susan Carlson’s increasing role in politics (March 1997) and receipt of the St. Joseph’s Home for Children Community Award (December 1997); 1998-1999 board meeting/program schedule; 1996-1998 bylaws; 1996 donation brochure; 1998 financial guidelines for gift giving; 1997 and 1998 lists of gifts to Governor’s residence since 1982; invitations, photographs, and descriptions of each home visited (1997 only) for the 1997 and 1998 Historic House Tour of Fascinating Homes on Summit Hill; 1998 inventory of fund-raising items sold; 1996-1998 membership brochures; 1996, 1998-1999 officer’s list; photographs of 1996-1998 gatherings at the residence; proposed budget for 1997-1999; 1998 responsibilities; and membership rosters (1996, 1997).
Provides biographical information on Whitney, the architect of the Governor’s Residence.
Files include project books, blueprints, purchase orders, receipts, specifications, studies, and correspondence,
Arranged alphabetically.
Contains blueprints for the staff dining room.
Blueprints are severely water damaged.
Various reports regarding the inventories of the furnishings of the Governor’s Residence and acquisition files documenting the provenance of each piece in the Residence.
Includes photographs and paperwork for furnishings retired from use in the Residence.
Includes all acquisition information for each furnishing in the house. Files may include an acquisition card, purchase orders, receipts of purchase, donor information, restoration reports, and photographs. Some files are empty but were retained for the informational value of the label on the folder.
Each folder is arranged by its Governor’s Residence Council number, but folder labels also give a brief description of the piece, and in some cases its former state inventory number. As evidenced by the numerical order of the folders, some folders are missing.
Portions of the guest books kept at the Residence. The overlap in dates between volumes may have been due to more than one guest book being used at major and/or large events.
The tour schedules (May 1991-April 1992) are very incomplete; the majority cover Tuesdays that the Residence was open for appointment only public tours. The Residence daily/weekly schedules detail all events occurring at the Residence.
Clippings either not found in the clippings scrapbooks or that post-date the volumes. All concern the Residence; many of those from the Perpich administration deal with a proposed sale of the house and include editorial cartoons.
Newspaper clippings about the Residence from the 1930s, when the Irvine family was still in residence, through the Rolvaag, LeVander and Anderson administrations.
Newspaper clippings about the Residence during the Quie years.
Memorial project initiated by Iantha LeVander during her husband’s term in office to honor Minnesota’s servicemen and women who gave their lives during the Vietnam war. Contains the names of those Vietnam veterans by year, invitation, correspondence, and profile of sculptor Paul Granlund, whose Man-Nam sculpture was erected in the garden.
Images, including black and white and color photographs, depicting the Irvine home on Summit Avenue at the time it was built through the renovations of the house as the Governor’s Residence during the Perpich administration in the late 1980s.
Arranged alphabetically.
Sun porch addition.
Mainly of the family playing in the yard (1972).
Taken for Art Dickey in preparation for planning the restoration of the house, as well as other interior photos and negatives taken before remodeling began.
Hose extending from a hole in the ceiling to a bucket on the floor depicting the condition of the Residence prior to renovations.
Photographs are soiled and water damaged; negatives are in good condition.
Dining room before and after its renovation.
For photograph made from 1930 negative, see Interior, November 1930 file.
Photographs (and one negative) taken shortly after the home’s construction in 1910 while the Irvine family was in residence.
Exterior of the house, some taken in winter. Three include the Wendell Anderson children.
Includes photograph of governors Orville Freeman, Elmer L. Andersen, Harold Stassen, Al Quie, Wendell Anderson, and Arne Carlson.
Highlighting the decorative wrought iron front gates, the Wendell Anderson family (July 1971), and the house decorated for Christmas (1975).
Discoveries made during the refinishing of the grand hall.
Grounds and landscaping.
Copies of photographs of the Irvine home that appeared in the November
1920
The originals were supplied for copying by Olivia Irvine Dodge in 1976.
Rooms and major features and furnishings.
Organized by room, taken during the Rolvaag administration.
Irvine grandchildren and great grandchildren visiting the residence.
Library before and after restoration.
Remodeling process; some include Lola Perpich viewing the work in progress.
Vietnam Memorial sculpture done by artist Paul Granlund for the grounds.
Patio area prior to renovation efforts.
Patio restoration process; includes photographs of Lola Perpich viewing the site.
Patio project underway and John McCarthy and Gordon Erlandson laying bricks by the fountain.
Construction of the patio.
Plaque acknowledging that the house was presented to the state by the Irvine daughters in memory of their parents.
Legislative breakfast, beauty queen reception, WAMSO reception, and other receptions held at the Residence.
Photographs of the governor, his family and visitors to the Residence, including brief descriptions of each governor’s accomplishments, key events of his administration, and family events. The materials were formerly collages that hung in the Residence.
Correspondence, memos, budgets, committee reports and plans documenting the role of Donlin, Council member (1979-1982) and chair (1982-1984), particularly detailing the administrative activities of the Council.
Compiled by Norma Sommerdorf, staff aide to First Lady Mary Anderson from 1971 through 1976, the notebook documents, in text and photographs, the rooms, furniture, architectural features, and accessories in the residence. 165 photocopied pages, many of which are accompanied by the original page or the original photograph on the page. Also, one folder of related notes and photographs.
An updated version, 129 photocopied pages, was left in the Governor’s Residence by Gretchen Quie in 1983. It also contains many original photographs. Included in the text is information on the state of the rooms and their contents when the Quie’s took office, changes and renovations made during the Quie administration, and donors of furnishings and accessories. The remainder of the notebook documents staff, the building council, social functions and hospitality, and printed materials.