These five black and white photographs show Cedar Crest, the official residence for the governor of Kansas. The home designed by the architect firm of Wight and Wight was built in 1928 for the newspaper owner and publisher of the Topeka State Journal Frank P. MacLennan. The three-story structure was designed as a French chateau and was built on 250 acres of land northwest of downtown Topeka, Kansas. The mansion was occupied, briefly, by MacLennan before his death in 1933. In 1955, his widow Made Overstreet MacLennan left Cedar Crest and the surrounding land to the state of Kansas upon her death, to be used as the executive residence for the governor of Kansas. After her death in 1955, the home remained unoccupied until the state of Kansas officially accepted the residence in 1961. In 1962, after remodeling of the interior was completed, Governor John Anderson became the first governor to occupy Cedar Crest. In 1998, Cedar Crest under went an eighteenth month renovation at a cost of $4.4 million dollars. When completed in 2000, extensive restoration repairs had been conducted from top to bottom, and inside and out. Today, Cedar Crest still serves as the home for governors and their families.
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