Item 14558 - Blaine House, Augusta, ca. 1934
- Item 14558 - Blaine House, Augusta, ca. 1934
- Contributed by Maine Historical Society
- Item 14558
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Image Info The Blaine House, located across from the State House on State Street in Augusta, is the official residence of the Governor of Maine. The house was completed in 1833 by James Hall, an early nineteenth century captain.
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In 1862, the same year that he was elected to Congress, James G. Blaine purchased the house. Over the next ten years, the house was remodeled and expanded to accommodate the growing Blaine family. As Blaine rose through the political ranks, his family often remained in Augusta while he was in Washington.
Blaine died in 1893 and his wife, Harriet, died in 1903. In 1919, in response to a law that had been passed a few years earlier requiring the governor of Maine to live in Augusta, Blaine's daughter, Harriet Blaine Beale, deeded the house to the state.
Her gift was in the memory of her son, Walker Blaine Beale, who had been killed in France in World War I. Since then the mansion has served as a home for most governors of Maine.