Gianfortes buy $4 million Helena mansion, say they will donate the historic home to the state when the governor's term ends

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte and First Lady Susan Gianforte have purchased a new private residence in Helena, the two announced Monday.

For a sum of $4 million, the Gianfortes now own Helena’s Samuel T. Hauser House, a 9-bedroom mansion built in 1885 by the industrialist and territorial governor of the same name.

The Gianfortes purchased the home, located on Madison Avenue in Helena’s historic Mansion District, with their own funds, according to a statement, but intend to ultimately donate the property to the state, which would decide what to eventually do with it.

“We purchased the beautiful and historic Hauser House to call our home here in Helena, and to provide a space for the people of Montana to come together,” Gianforte said. “Following my service, we will donate this home to the State and the people of Montana.”

Gianforte had previously split his time between a residence in Bozeman and another house in the Mansion District, less than three blocks away from the Hauser property. He moved out of Montana’s official governor’s mansion early in his term as the state was set to begin tackling the home’s sizable maintenance backlog, including asbestos remediation and plumbing repairs.

But that work, scheduled to be complete by the end of 2022, never got off the ground, despite an almost $2 million legislative appropriation in 2019 and an additional $440,500 the next session. The governor’s office said the Montana Department of Administration paused work on the home because of inflation, supply chain issues, construction delays and a shortage of skilled labor.

Last week, State Sen. Mary Ann Dunwell, D-Helena, requested a legislative audit of the renovation, expressing frustration at the slow pace of work despite multiple appropriations from lawmakers.

“If [the state] can move forward on other state building projects in Helena, why can’t they move forward on the executive residence?” she asked in a press release. “It’s not for our current governor to decide what will happen to this official residence for Montana’s chief executive. If he has a plan, what is it? We have a right to know.”

Dunwell, reached by phone Monday, said she stood by her audit request regardless of the governor’s purchase of the new home. It’s not clear what the purchase means for the fate of the state’s official executive residence.

That property, located at the intersection of Carson and Broadway streets in Helena, was built over budget and behind schedule in the 1950s, replacing the state’s historic governor’s mansion, a Victorian-style home that now serves as a museum.

A spokesperson for Gianforte directed all questions related to the current executive residence’s repairs to the Montana Department of Administration. She added that the governor and first lady would cover any costs related to maintaining the new property through the duration of their ownership.

A spokesperson for the Department of Administration, which oversees state property, did not return a request for comment.

Gianforte purchased the Hauser home from Helena doctor Gary Rapaport, according to county property records. Rapaport listed the home at $6.18 million, according to a story from trade publication Mansion Global, which also first reported the governor’s purchase of the home last week. Rapaport did not respond to requests for an interview by publication time Monday.

The home, Mansion Global reported, was acquired by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena in 1913. The diocese sold the home to Montana Gov. Tim Babcock at the end of his term in 1969. Babcock, according to a listing of the home, installed a direct telephone line to President Richard Nixon, a personal friend. (Babcock in 1974 also pleaded guilty to facilitating illegal campaign donations to Nixon as part of the Watergate scandal).

The house was sold in 1990, then again in 1997, according to property records.

Neighborhood resident Lora Cowee, whose parents live across the street and down the block from the new Gianforte residence, said she appreciates that the mansion will once again become state property, hopefully enjoyed by future governors. It’s more befitting for the status of the office than the current home on Broadway, she said, which Cowee said she’d visited for events under the prior administration.

“[It was] like walking into a late-80s movie. It really was,” said Cowee, 54, noting the significant renovations that have been undertaken since then. “Every governor from this point on would just be in the same position as Gianforte. But Gianforte just has the money to do that,” she added, nodding at the newly purchased corner mansion.

Other neighbors shared that appreciation, hoping that future state ownership would protect the home from major renovations that would change its historic character.

“I think that’s good because that house is beautiful, the history of it,” said Deborah Sibbitt, 72, who lives on the same block as the Hauser mansion. She said she’s tried to make minimal changes to the interior of her home, built in 1889, after previous owners took out some pieces of its historic woodwork. “I think it’s real important in the area and the historic homes that they stay that way.”

Sibbitt said she’s not concerned about increased traffic and business in the neighborhood when the Gianfortes move in, noting that their current home isn’t far away. She’s kept an eye out for a chance to meet her neighbors, she said, but hasn’t yet had the opportunity.

“They’re never home at the right time,” Sibbitt said. “And you don’t want to knock on the door because, you know, he’s the governor.”

Mara Silvers contributed reporting to this story.