State House, once known as Government House, has been the official residence of several colonial governors and Guyanese presidents over the years.
It is said to have had its origins in the 1820s, when the building was originally owned by William Percy Austin, the first Anglican Bishop of Guyana.
Ordinances were passed in 1852 and 1863 allowing the purchase of the property to establish an official residence for the governor of what was then British Guiana.
After independence, the country’s first president, Arthur Chung chose State House as his official residence in the 1970s.
It would be decades later, in the 1990s, that the building was again used by a sitting president when the fourth president, Cheddi Jagan, chose the building for his official residence.
It remains the official presidential residence today.
With a lush, green landscape and tree-lined driveway, State House is located from Main Street at the front to Carmichael Street along New Market Street. It has over the years undergone several additions and changes.
The original building faced Carmichael Street but by 1894, its main entrance was on Main Street.
The building is often described as the house with its 100 windows, and is said to have once been called “The Grande Dame of Main Street” for its graceful interior and exterior wooden architectural elements and design, some of which are credited to Caesar Castellani, an architect known for designing several buildings in Guyana.
