The Mansion

The Mansion House is the official summer palace of the President of the Philippines. The mansion is located in the summer capital of the country, Baguio, situated around asl in the Cordillera Central Range of northern Luzon.HistoryThe Mansion House was built in 1908 to serve as the official summer residence of U.S. Governors-General at the insistence of Governor-General William Cameron Forbes. The name is derived from the summer cottage in New England of Governor Forbes whose administration the original Mansion House was built under. Architect William E. Parsons, based on preliminary plans by architect Daniel H. Burnham, the planner of the city of Baguio, designed the mountain retreat following the tenets of the City Beautiful Movement. In 1910, the meeting of the Second Philippine Legislature was held at the Mansion House for three weeks.With the inauguration of the Philippine Commonwealth, the Mansion along with Malacañan Palace was turned over to the Philippine president. The High Commissioner to the Philippines, the successor to the Governor-General as the highest American official in the Philippines and representative of the United States Government, then built The American Residence, completed in 1940.