From Mary Todd Lincoln’s China to Work by Theaster Gates: Inside the Artful Redecoration of the Illinois Governor’s Mansion
On a cold, windy day in November 2018, three weeks after election day, J.B. and M.K. Pritzker walked up the winding driveway to the Illinois Governor’s mansion in Springfield. As they gazed upon the Italianate-Greek Revival structure, built in 1855 by John Mills Van Osdel, M.K. locked eyes with the well-dressed man beside them, Michael S. Smith. “You have to help me with this,” she said.
M.K. and Smith, an interior designer, had first met back in 2009, on the eve of the inauguration of another famous Illinois resident: Barack Obama. They struck up a fast friendship: Smith was starting his restoration of the Obama White House, and M.K. shared her passion for historic homes. (Before taking an internship with Senator Tom Daschle in Washington, she even thought about pursuing a postgraduate degree in preservation architecture.)
Over the next nine years, they stayed in touch and worked on several smaller decor projects together. All the while, the Pritzkers transitioned from being prominent yet behind-the-scenes players in the American political arena to front-facing ones: after co-chairing Hillary Clinton’s first presidential campaign, J.B. ran for governor and won in 2018. In the span of a few short months, the Pritzkers packed their bags for Springfield.
Among M.K’s many new duties as first lady? Updating the Governor’s Mansion—which was, well, a daunting task. The 16-room house is the third oldest state governor’s residence in the United States, and among the largest. If walls could talk, these would have a lot to say: Abraham Lincoln sought advice from William H. Bissell within the building’s halls. Ulysses S. Grant is thought to have written his remarks for Lincoln’s tomb dedication in the guest rooms. Adlai E. Stevenson decided to run for president in its office. (Although he lost to Eisenhower, Stevenson is credited with revitalizing the Democratic Party in the 1950s with his noble and intellectual demeanor—paving the way for J.F.K. and the rest of the Kennedys in the process.)
Yet the walls aren’t in a museum, but in a living, breathing home. They needed to be modernized for both the sake of the mansion’s inhabitants—who reside in private apartments on the second floor—and the people of Illinois itself: several rooms, including the library, parlors, and sitting rooms, are open for public visits, while the house itself is frequently the setting for state dinners. M.K.’s predecessor, Diana Mendley Rauner, did a tremendous amount of renovation during her tenure, including plasterwork, woodwork, and a roof installation. But now it was time for M.K. to make sure the home honored both the previous and present generations: “You’re only there for a short amount of time, and it belongs to the people,” M.K. says. “When you’re working with a house of this type, you have to be extremely respectful to the people that came before you and their legacies.”
She knew just the person to help her with the historic job: Smith, whose high-profile decoration of the Obama White House received critical acclaim amid delicate circumstances. (“Tailoring the White House to a new family is more hazardous work,” Maureen Dowd noted in The New York Times. “Furniture can fall apart if you move it or you can discover that the carpet you’re planning on using in the West Wing was made in China.”)
Smith says he immediately saw the similarities between the two projects: “If the White House is the People’s House, the governor’s mansion is the People of Illinois’s House. You need to utilize it as a convening place, a showplace for the history of the state, as well as show where the state is going in terms of creative talent and art.”
