Nichols designed this brick two-story residence for Mississippi’s governor in the Greek Revival style that he had refined on his just-finished capitol building (JM12). Nichols described his scheme in an 1840 report to the legislature: “In finishing the building, it is intended to avoid a profusion of ornament, and to adhere to a plain republican simplicity, as best comporting with the dignity of the state.” Here, in contrast to the imposing portico at the capitol, he created a semicircular porch with four delicately rendered Corinthian columns and a Chinese Chippendale balcony. A one-story frame service wing extended to the rear.
The interior features an octagonal foyer screened by Corinthian columns from the stair hall beyond. Flanking double parlors and dining room, each with paired sliding doors, create a flexible floor plan. As at the capitol, Nichols used motifs from Minard Lafever’s Beauties of Modern Architecture (1835) including the anthemion-decorated architraves and rosettes at the first-floor doorways.
Governor Tilghman Tucker occupied the mansion in 1842, and for years few changes took place beyond installation of gas fixtures in 1857. In 1863, after Governor Charles Clark evacuated Jackson ahead of Union forces, the house was used as a Confederate hospital and then as Union headquarters before returning to its intended use. By 1908, the inadequately maintained building faced possible demolition, and the legislature hired Jackson architect William S. Hull to assess its condition. Hull’s preservation-minded report gave ammunition to Governor Edmund Noel and women’s civic groups to wage a successful battle to renovate and preserve the building. Hull replaced the rear wing with a two-story addition, and he veneered the house with yellow brick to unify and strengthen the structure. The yellow facade with white pilasters was painted white in the 1940s.
In the 1970s under the guidance of architectural historian Charles E. Peterson and Charlotte Capers, former director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the state undertook a full restoration to Nichols’s design. Edward Vason Jones designed front doors and replaced the original plaster cornices with a new scheme of decorative plaster. A larger wing replaced the 1909 rear addition, and a new fence and wall were installed in 1971. The restored Nichols section functions as a ceremonial and meeting space and is open for tours.