The Blaine House was given to the state in 1919, and has been the official residence of the Governor since 1920. James G. Blaine, the namesake of the residence, was an important politician from Maine, serving first in state political positions, then in the U.S. House and Senate, and finally making an unsuccessful bid for the Presidency in 1884. The mansion came to the Blaine family in 1862 through Harriet Stanwood Blaine, James G.’s wife, and is said to have been a birthday gift to her from her husband. Harriet Stanwood was an Augusta native who brought her ambitious husband to the state in 1853. Harriet died in 1903 and left the residence to her children and grandchildren. By 1919, Harriet Blaine Beale (one of the three Blaine children) owned the mansion outright. She donated the building to the state in memory of her son, Walker, who died in France in 1918, serving in World War I. Prior to his untimely death, Walker owned the controlling shares of the building and he donated its use to a state safety committee during the war. The Committee occupied the building from April 1917 to December 1918. In addition to this generous gift to the state, Harriet Blaine Beale is known for her biography of her famous father, an edited work of her mother’s letters, and a children’s book, Stories of the Old Testament for Children (1899).

Nellie Grant, President Ulysses S. Grant’s daughter, stayed in the Blaine Mansion in 1873, when she visited the state with her father.

Maine’s First Ladies have lived in the Blaine Mansion since 1920. Governor John F. Hill and Laura Colman Ligget Hill occupied the house between 1897 and 1902, before it was the official residence. Without doubt, the most well-known First Lady is Olympia Snowe, currently one of Maine’s U.S. Senators. Senator Snowe married Governor John McKernan in February 1989 and became Maine’s official First Lady. Senator Snowe has deep connections to Augusta. She was born and raised here, and her parents (George and Georgia Goranites Bouchles) had a restaurant on State Street. The Bouchles family relocated to Lewiston in the mid-1950’s, then Olympia grew up in Auburn with an aunt and uncle after the untimely deaths of her parents. Olympia Snowe’s service to Maine is exemplary. She served in the Maine Senate and House of Representatives, then represented the Second Maine Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives (eight years), before being elected to the U.S. Senate. Senator Snowe is known nationally for her work on the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues.

Phyllis Seibert is the chef at the Blaine House, and has been for twenty-five years. She marked this recent anniversary with the publication of Recipes and Reminiscences, a biography and recipe book based on her years in the Governor’s mansion. The book contains memories of and favorite recipes from many of Maine’s first families and is dedicated to the memory of Susan and Angel Curtis and Peter McKernan, three of Maine’s first children who died long before their time.

 

Site #19.1 Sources:

	Agger, Lee. Women of Maine. Portland, ME: Guy Gannett Publishing Co., 1982.
	Augusta Conservation Commission, Kennebec Historical Society, and Augusta Recreation Department. –Historical Walking Tour of Augusta Maine" (pamphlet), no date.
	Augusta, Maine Sesquicentennial. Special reprint of Daily Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine, Sesquicentennial Edition, Wednesday, July 30, 1947.
	Biographical Director of the Governors of the United States, 1789 - 1978, Vol. II. Edited by Robert Sobel and John Raimo. Westport, CT: Meckler Books, 1978.
	Blaine House [The]." Informational brochure about the Blaine House (June 2001).
	Maine Women's Hall of Fame. On line resource available at http://www.uma.maine.edu/libraries/MWHOF_Website/alibMAINmwhofame.html. Accessed 2 September 2001.
	Nine and Counting: The Women of the Senate. New York: William Morrow, 2000 [with Catherine Whitney].
	Recipes and Reminiscences: A Blaine House Cookbook. Online resource available at http://www.maineiac.com/bhchef1/index.html. Accessed 2 September 2001.
	Riddle, Lyn. –Opposites Attract," in Down East Magazine, April 1990. [Maine State Library Vertical Files.]
	Schriver, Edward O. and Stanley R. Howe, –The Republican Ascendancy." In Maine The Pine Tree State. Edited by. R. W. Judd, E. A. Churchill, and J. W. Eastman, 370 - 390. Orono, ME: University of Maine Press, 1995.
	Sprague's Joural [sic] of Maine History, Vol. VII, Nov. Dec. 1919, Jan. 1920, No. 3, Pages 119 - 122 as published on ROOTSWEB Genealogical Data Cooperative. Online resource available at www.rootsweb.com/-mekenneb/augusta/oldfort.html. Accessed 10 March 2001.