When former Gov. John Lynch was first elected in 2004, he suggested to his wife Susan that their kids could have a sleepover in the Governor’s Mansion, also known as the Bridges House.

She shot the idea down immediately. 

“Susan was adamantly against it, because it was a mess,” Lynch said. “There were mice running around, there was mold everywhere...the place was a disaster.”

Twelve years and one intensive restoration later, the Bridges House is unrecognizable from the “dark, dank, gloomy, creepy place it used to be,” Susan Lynch said. 

On Friday night, glittering ornaments hung from the windows and festooned a huge Christmas tree at a Bridges House Christmas party. Standing in front of a crackling fireplace, three generations of governors and first spouses including the Lynch’s, Gov. Maggie Hassan, her husband Tom and Governor-elect Chris Sununu and his wife Valerie traded stories about the house and its long history.

John Lynch joked that his wife’s restoration project was poorly timed – she finished it the day before he left office.

“We never got to enjoy it!” he joked, as the crowded room laughed.

The two-bedroom house is too small for most governors with families to live there full-time. Meldrim and Gale Thomson were the only governor and first lady to make the Bridges House their permanent home from 1973 to 1979.

Gov. Hassan said the house has provided a welcome respite for her when she occasionally stays there. Though she usually commutes from her home in Exeter, Hassan stays at the Bridges House on nights when she is working late at the State House.

“Generally that’s because the budget is bad or a bill isn’t working,” she joked.

Hassan said a staffer once asked her if she liked spending the evening alone in the governor’s mansion.

“I said, if you have raised two children, you are very happy if you get an uncluttered, beautiful, clean space to yourself,” she laughed.

In addition to it being a quiet place to stay, Hassan noted the house is open for public tours and is often used as an extension of the governor’s office – a place to host department heads, visiting governors or CEOs of businesses.

“It is now not only a resource to the governor of New Hampshire, but the people of New Hampshire,” she said.

A long history in New Hampshire

Nestled on Mountain Road in East Concord, the Bridges House is an unassuming brick structure that dates back to the 1800s.

The house has been passed down from governor to governor since the 1960s, after the death of its owner, former governor and U.S. senator Styles Bridges.

It’s commonly known as the ‘Governor’s Mansion,’ but that’s perhaps not the most apt title, according to Barbara Bridges, Styles Bridges daughter-in-law and board member of the nonprofit organization Friends of the Bridges House.

“It’s hardly a mansion,” she said.

The property the house sits on dates back to the 1600s. Bridges bequeathed his house to the state in the 1940s. He wanted to see the house put to use after his death, as there was no official governor’s residence in those days.

“It was just a straight out gift,” said Barbara Bridges. “They left it furnished, they left the towels, they left everything in it.”

Fixing up a state landmark

In 2004, Susan Lynch began a campaign to dramatically renovate the house, which was falling into disrepair.

“It was sad,” Lynch said. “It’s a beautiful old house, but it was so worn and tired and no one’s taking care of it.”

The porch on the house was no longer functional and full of mildew, the kitchen was cramped and the dining room couldn’t fit more than 10 people.

Some of the more valuable pieces of furniture were growing mold and mildew from years of hot summers and cold, damp winters without temperature control or air conditioning.

Furthermore, the garage contained a room filled with a combination of “valuable antiques and pure junk,” Lynch said.

“I think that was the security system, they threw the junk in with the good stuff so nobody looked,” she added.

Lynch reached out to other New Hampshire first spouses and helped start Friends of the Bridges House to fund the renovations.

“It was really quite widespread among former first families that something needed to be done,” Lynch said.

It took many years to raise enough money to restore the kitchen and turn the porch into an all-season room. Part of the garage was also restored.

The house is open for public events, including a New Hampshire authors series , and the former first lady and Bridges both say they want to see even more in the future.

“It is still a working part of the governor’s office and a working part of state government,” Lynch said. “I’d like to see the house as open as possible to the public.”

A family house

Over the years, the house has become the setting for many colorful stories.

Governor-elect Sununu has plenty of childhood memories about the Bridges House, from when his father John H. Sununu was governor.

“The governor’s right, this place was creepy at times,” Sununu joked on Friday.

In the mid-1980s, a 10-year-old Sununu and his siblings were in the old garage the weekend before the annual state Easter Egg hunt. Sununu remembered staffers were bringing in prizes for the big event – one of which was a giant chocolate bust of Mr. T.

“Which is a ridiculous concept, but back then you’re like, ‘Wow, this is so cool!’” Sununu said as the crowd burst out laughing.

One of the favorite past-times of the Sununu siblings used to be hiding in the dark parts of the house and jumping out to scare each other. As the second-youngest sibling, Sununu often got the brunt of the pranks from his older brothers.

Standing next to the chocolate bust of Mr. T., Sununu got the idea to scare them back. He waited and waited in the garage until he heard footsteps.

“I jump out, and I go, ‘HA!’” Sununu recalled.

Only, it wasn’t his brothers. Rather, the footsteps belonged to Kitty Dukakis, wife of former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.

“She jumps backwards, she hits the table, and she breaks Mr. T.,” Sununu said. “She felt terrible, and I felt terrible. I thought I was going to get in trouble.”

“It all really stems from the fact that this place was so creepy,” he concluded.

On a more serious note, Sununu said he is looking forward to spending time in a decidely nicer governor’s house than the one he spent time in as a child.

“We do it right, this really is a New Hampshire house for New Hampshire people,” he said.

(Ella Nilsen can be reached at 369-3322, enilsen@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @ella_nilsen.)

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