Ticket Prices
General Admission In-Person: $30
General Admission Virtual: $20
Morven Member In-Person: $20
Morven Member Virtual: $10
Student In-Person: $20
Student Virtual: $10
Interested in series tickets? Learn more here.

Travel back in time with Virginia’s executive mansion, the nation’s oldest continuously occupied governor’s mansion. 

First occupied in 1813 by Governor James Barbour, Virginia’s executive mansion offers a lens into America’s complicated past. More than fifty “first families” have occupied the home. Remembered today through the residence’s Cottage and memorial garden, the Jackson and Valentine families were enslaved at the mansion prior to the Civil War. The Federal style mansion, little altered architecturally over its long history, has accommodated guests such as the Marquis de Lafayette, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), and Winston Churchil. In 1990, Virginia’s executive mansion became the residence of L. Douglas Wilder, the first elected Black governor in America since Reconstruction. 

This illustrated hybrid talk will be presented by historian and author, Mary Miley Theobald. Theobald is the author of First House: Two Centuries with Virginia’s First Families.

All talks begin at 6:30 p.m. in Morven’s Stockton Education Center. Doors and the virtual waiting room open at 6:00 p.m. A Zoom link will be sent to all virtual participants upon registration. Light refreshments inspired by each state will be provided for in-person attendees.

This program is sponsored by Erin Forrey Design. The 2024 Grand Homes & Gardens Speaker Series Sponsor is Bryn Mawr Trust. 

FOR MORVEN MEMBERS: Please note that you must login into your Morven Member account in the upper righthand corner of the registration page in order to access the member rate.

Photo credit: Virginia’s Executive Mansion. Creative Commons license.