sadly, harriet blaine beal lost her son, walker blaine beal in world war i and he had actually ownedhe house and then upon his death the house reverted back to her and she recognizing that it probably wasn't going to go on in the family and in addition to that recognizing the need that maine had and the close proximity of the blaine house to our state house across the street, she donated the house for the purpose of the governor's home. this is the state reception room. when the house was built in 1833 this was two rooms, and then when the blaines acquired the house in 1862, in '69 and again in 1872 they made some major changes to the house which included opening up both these two rooms into one big reception room. this really reflects the fact that in the blaine period of ownership from 1862 into the early 1900s that there was a lot of entertaining that went on in this house related to blaine's role as a leader of the republican party. he went from there to being a state representative in 1859, and he was the speaker of the state house of representatives. he moved onto become a cong

sadly harriet blaine beal had lost her son, walker blaine beal, in world war i and he had actually owned the house and then upon his death the house reverted back to her and she, recognizing it probably wasn't going to go on in the family and negotiation that recognizing the need that maine had and the close proximity of the blaine house to our statehouse across the street she donated the house for the purpose of the governor's home. this is the state reception room. when the house was built in 1833 this was two rooms and then when the blaines acquired the house in 1862, in '69 and again in 1872 they made some major changes to the house which included opening up both these two rooms into one big reception room. this really reflects the fact that in the blaine period of ownership from 1862 into the early 1900s that there was a lot of entertaining that went on in the house related to blaine's role as a leader of the republican party, both in maine and in the nation. he was a newspaper editor, editor of the "kennebec journal." then he went from there to being a state representative in 1859.

blaine beal. and walker blaine beal was tragically lost in the last month of world war i, 1918, in france. and so the house went back to harriete beal again. and she in turn gave it to the state of maine in 1919 as our governor's mansion. it was restored and remodeled so it could be used as the home of maine's governors. governor and mrs. lepage are the 21st family to live here since 1920. >> let me introduce to you another gentleman we would like to bring into the discussion. and let me show you as we start out here, a biography he's written, neil rolde is joining us, his book is "continental liar" from the state of maine. a campaign slogan used against james blaine, of course. neil rolde is joining us from inside the blaine house, the governor's mansion. how did you get interested enough in james blaine to write a biography about him? >> well, basically i have been involved in this house since 1966. i was assistant to the governor. so i knew all about the blaine house. and then later on, another governor, angus king asked me to be co-chair of a group called friends of the blaine house. i was spending a lot of time here. i no