#Mansion June 4

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There have been quite a few stories about the Executive MANSION in Raleigh NC over the past month.

My post is not about the political motives of those protests but to relive a time when a man with ties to Robeson County  served as North Carolina’s Governor and lived in the Executive MANSION. His name was Angus McLean 

Lumberton NC is the home of former governor Angus McLean. His son Hector MacLean lived on Elm Street in Lumberton until his death in 2012.

I also live on Elm Street so I am fascinated with the history of people past and present who called it home. One interesting tidbit about the McLean family was somewhere along the line they went to spelling their last name publicly from McLean to MacLean.

Hector’s dad Angus served as governor in the 1920’s. He is the only Governor in the state of North Carolina to hail from Lumberton.  If you want to learn about Governor Angus McLean there is a great book at this link where you can view his papers and letters.

In 2015 I was invited to the Executive MANSION to witness a UNC Pembroke employee named Annette Straub get recognized at an awards luncheon. While I was there I took some photos.

Every North Carolina Governor’s name is included on the carpet that is located in the main foyer of the Executive MANSION. I found Lumberton’s Governor Angus McLean (1925-1929).

If you go to the MANSION it is located to the right of the staircase as you enter the front door.

See photo below to see staircase in MANSION as your enter.

I also found the picture (sorry for the glare) of Angus McLean’s wife First Lady Margaret French McLean.

Ironically her daughter (Margaret McLean Shepherd) and her husband Scott Shepherd built a house on the corner of 19th and Barker St in Lumberton, NC. That home is where the Annette Straub lives today. It was a great history lesson for her.

After leaving the governor’s office, Mr. and Mrs. Angus McLean and their children returned to Lumberton. Shortly, thereafter, they moved to Washington, D.C., where the former governor set up a law practice. The family traveled by train to Lumberton each weekend so that Mr. McLean could study the books of his other businesses. Partially because of that stressful schedule, his health deteriorated, and he died on June 21, 1935, of heart prob­lems. Margaret McLean and the children moved back to their home in Lumberton which was located on Chestnut Street.

Today that site is home to Robeson County Administration Building

Southern National Bank headquarters was also on that site after the house was torn down. People in Lumberton apparently called that home the “White House”.

The photo below shows Hector MacLean standing in front of that Lumberton NC MANSION that was his family’s home.

Later on Hector MacLean would move to the home on Elm Street shown below.

That house had two gigantic white lions guarding the driveway. Those lions came from the original family MANSION on Chestnut Street.

Hector only had one child Lyl MacLean Clinard and her husband Aaron Clinard. Today they live in High Point NC. In April 2019 the two white lions that were an iconic symbol on Elm Street were moved to the home of Aaron and Lyl MacLean Clinard.