By Parker Anderson
When the Organic Act of 1863 officially created the Arizona Territory, President Abraham Lincoln appointed a slate of government officials to travel there and set up a new government. John N. Goodwin was to be governor, with Richard C. McCormick serving as secretary of the territory.
Once deciding to set up the new territorial capital of Prescott on the west side of Granite Creek, the new officials lived in tents until Goodwin and McCormick contracted to have a suitable log structure built for them to occupy. Samuel Blair, Daniel Hatz and John Raible were contracted to build what would come to be known as the First Governor’s Mansion, completed in the fall of 1864.
Governor Goodwin disliked holding the position of governor out in the wilds and got himself elected territorial delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives the following year, so he could return east without looking like he was abandoning Arizona. He left for Washington and never returned. Secretary McCormick succeeded him as governor.
In 1867, under the guidance of Governor McCormick, the Territorial Legislature moved the capital from Prescott to Tucson. Henry W. Fleury, who had arrived with the governor’s party as a secretary, opted to stay in Prescott and purchased the Governor’s Mansion from the departing officials to use as a private residence for himself. With the mansion now in private ownership, it was never again used for any kind of government service, not even when the capital returned to Prescott. In the ensuing years, Fleury served variously as a probate judge and justice of the peace for the Prescott precinct.
In 1876 Judge Fleury obtained a U.S. Government land patent for 160 acres, including the site of the mansion. The area is known as Fleury’s Addition to this day. But Fleury was apparently hard up for money and mortgaged the entire addition, including the mansion. The mortgage changed hands more than once, ending up in the hands of Territorial Supreme Court Judge Charles G. W. French. When Fleury defaulted, Judge French took ownership of the mansion but agreed to let Fleury live there for the remainder of his life. Henry W. Fleury died in 1895.
Judge French bequeathed the mansion to the First Congregational Church upon his own death. The church in turn sold it to Joseph Dougherty in 1899, who made many “modern” renovations to both the interior and exterior, turning it into an apartment duplex.
By the 1910s, interest was brewing in preserving the old Governor’s Mansion as a historic site, and the State of Arizona (statehood having been granted in 1912) purchased the site from Dougherty in 1917 and contracted with the Prescott City Government to maintain the property. Another ten years passed, with the mansion sitting empty and deteriorating, until in 1927 the city signed an agreement with Sharlot M. Hall to move her historic collections into the building, creating a museum.
The Historic Territorial Governor's Mansion is the centerpiece to Sharlot Hall Museum's four-acre campus. Stewards have conducted conservation work on the Governor's Mansion since Sharlot Hall began the museum. Clapboard siding was removed in the twenties and thirties, and steel support beams were added for structural integrity in the sixties. The last major conservation efforts at the mansion involved foundation work, replacement and repairs of windows and doors, and a careful search under the floor of the structure for artifacts. This took place in the early 1980s during Governor Bruce Babbitt's administration and the mansion was closed during this time.
The Museum will soon be announcing another major conservation project of the beloved symbol of Arizona's earliest territorial government in Prescott, with structural work beginning in August.
“Days Past” is a collaborative project of the Sharlot Hall Museum and the Prescott Corral of Westerners International (www.prescottcorral.org). This and other Days Past articles are also available at www.archives.sharlothallmuseum.org/articles/days-past-articles/1. The public is encouraged to submit proposed articles and inquiries to dayspast@sharlothallmuseum.org Please contact SHM Research Center reference desk at 928-277-2003, or via email at archivesrequest@sharlothallmuseum.org for information or assistance with photo requests.