Queen Anne governor's residence completed in 1891 — the only mansion where a sitting NC governor has died, and the site of the long-running 'Fowle's Bed' knocking legend.
200 North Blount Street, Raleigh, NC 27601
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
The Executive Mansion is the active residence of the Governor of North Carolina. Public guided tours are offered on a limited schedule by reservation through NC Historic Sites; interior access is not available outside of scheduled tours.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved walkways; the mansion includes accommodations for accessible tour access
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1891 · Official residence of the Governor of North Carolina (continuous since 1891) · National Register of Historic Places (1970) · Designed by Samuel Sloan, completed by A.G. Bauer · Built in part with inmate-made bricks from Wake County clay · Only NC governor to die in office (Daniel Fowle, 1891) died here
Construction of the North Carolina Executive Mansion began in 1883 to a design by the Philadelphia architect Samuel Sloan, with assistance from his junior partner Adolphus Gustavus Bauer. Sloan died in 1885; Bauer assumed full responsibility for completing the building. The mansion was finished in 1891.
Its first occupant, Governor Daniel Gould Fowle, moved into the unfinished mansion with his daughter Helen in January 1891. Fowle died in the home in April 1891 — the first and, as of the present, only sitting governor to die in residence. The mansion is considered one of the finest examples of Queen Anne Victorian architecture in the United States, with a steeply pitched gable, richly textured brickwork, and elaborate turned-wood porch detailing — atypically symmetrical for the style, suited to its formal civic role.
The mansion's bricks were made from Wake County clay and molded by prison labor; some still bear the inscribed names of the men who made them, particularly in the surrounding sidewalks. The mansion was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and is located within the Blount Street Historic District. It remains the official residence of every sitting governor of North Carolina and is administered by NC Historic Sites.
Sources
The Executive Mansion's most-told ghost story was first recounted publicly by Governor Bob Scott to North Carolina folklorist Richard Walser. According to the regional folklore site North Carolina Ghosts and the academic-style writeup at the Association of Paranormal Study, Governor Fowle's original custom-built bed remained in the mansion's second-floor master bedroom from his death in 1891 until Governor Scott took office in 1969. Scott found the bed too short for his frame and moved it to another room.
Per Scott's own account — repeated in regional press including Midtown Magazine's 'Raleigh's Haunted History' and amplified by the OnlyInYourState roundup of the mansion's lore — that change is when the nightly knocking began. He and his wife described a deep, regular knocking from inside the bedroom wall behind the new headboard, occurring around 10 p.m. each evening. State maintenance staff inspected the wall and reported no plumbing or other infrastructure behind it that could account for the sound.
The coda to the story, also widely circulated and told to incoming governors, is that the knocking ceased when Fowle's original bed was returned to its original room. Governor Scott — by his own framing 'not a believer' — nonetheless held a press conference at which he dubbed the phenomenon 'Governor Fowle's Ghost.'
The story is now part of the institutional folklore of the mansion and continues to be retold in Raleigh ghost-tour itineraries and regional press coverage. Because access to the mansion's interior is restricted and most retellings trace back to a single primary witness (Scott), the legend is presented here as oral history rather than independently corroborated phenomena.
The Executive Mansion is the active residence of the Governor of North Carolina; interior access requires a scheduled NC Historic Sites tour. Appreciate the exterior from the public sidewalk on N Blount Street.
Notable Entities
The Executive Mansion's elaborate Queen Anne facade is visible from the public sidewalk on North Blount Street. Look for the brick walkway whose pavers were stamped by the inmates who made them, the steeply pitched gables, and the wraparound porch detailing by architects Samuel Sloan and A.G. Bauer. Interior access requires a scheduled tour.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Raleigh, NC
The Heck-Andrews House was completed in 1870 for Confederate Colonel Jonathan McGee Heck and his wife Mattie, who raised thirteen children there. It was one of the first major homes built in Raleigh after the Civil War, and one of North Carolina's earliest substantial Second Empire-style mansions. The home was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and today serves as office space for the North Carolina Association of Realtors.
Raleigh, NC
The White-Holman House, also known as Whitehall, is a circa-1799 late-Georgian/early-Federal two-story frame dwelling built for William White, North Carolina Secretary of State (1798-1811). It remained in the White family until 1884, when cotton broker William Calvin Holman and his wife Anna Belo Holman bought it and added a two-story Victorian wing. The house was relocated and restored in 1986; it is now a private executive office building.
Port Townsend, WA
Contractor George Starrett built the mansion in 1889 as a wedding gift for his wife, Ann. The 11-bedroom Queen Anne / Stick Victorian features a 70-foot free-hung spiral staircase rising to a dome painted with frescoes. After operating as a B&B inn for years, the property sold in November 2025 to private owners Christian and Cima Andrews.