PRINCETON—Governor Mikie Sherrill and First Gentleman Jason Hedberg will relocate to Drumthwacket this summer, finally occupying a mansion that has sat largely vacant since Jim McGreevey resigned in 2004.
The announcement, posted to the governor’s website Friday, makes Sherrill the first elected governor to maintain full-time residence at the Princeton estate in 22 years. It comes eight years after her predecessor Phil Murphy spent $862,000 in taxpayer money fixing the roof, parking and sewer lines. Murphy then decided to stay in Middletown anyway despite helping the Drumthwacket Foundation raise more than $3 million in private donations for a new barn, commercial kitchen and ADA elevator.
”Drumthwacket is the people’s house,” Sherrill said in a statement echoing rhetoric governors have used since the Kean administration established the nonprofit foundation in 1982. “We look forward to bringing it to life.”
The move ends two decades of gubernatorial absence that turned the 190-year-old mansion into a ceremonial weigh station. Chris Christie used it for Sunday dinners while living in Mendham. Jon Corzine slept there only while recovering from a 2007 car accident, preferring his Hoboken penthouse. Richard Codey, who served as acting governor after McGreevey’s resignation, treated it as a part-time venue.
The State Police will absorb the operational shift. The Office of Executive Protection maintains 24/7 physical security at Drumthwacket under protocols established in 1984. Full-time residency typically expands staffing requirements. Security costs for prior governors’ full-time residential details averaged $250,000 annually, per historical documentation from the Christie era. Drumthwacket’s proximity to Trenton (12 miles on Route 206 compared to the 56-mile haul down the Parkway from Montclair) cuts the motorcade commute by nearly an hour. It does not eliminate the need for round-the-clock protection.
Two of Sherrill’s children attend the U.S. Naval Academy, while a third completes high school in Montclair. The summer timing of the move aligns with academic calendar constraints rather than a mid-year transfer. Sherrill has not confirmed if the move will affect her children’s schooling after the summer, or if the move would change her official domicile for tax and election purposes.
The Drumthwacket Foundation maintains 501(c)(3) status with an unpaid board that includes former First Lady Tammy Murphy. Specific contributors to the capital campaign remain obscured. The organization files required IRS disclosures, but donor rolls above $5,000 are accessible only via Schedule B review. Public filings do not detail contribution sources.
State environmental records show the mansion generated 118 metric tons of CO2-equivalent emissions in 2022. Only three governors have called Drumthwacket home since 1966. Jim Florio lived there in the 1990s. McGreevey occupied it from 2002 to 2004. Sherrill will be the third.
Sources
• Office of the Governor of New Jersey, "Statement by Governor Mikie Sherrill and First Gentleman Jason Hedberg" (April 3, 2026)
• NJ Division of Budget and Accounting, "FY2026 Budget in Brief" (February 2025)
• NJ Department of Environmental Protection, "Emissions Inventory Report," 2022
• ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Drumthwacket Foundation Inc, EIN 22-2429563, Form 990-PF filings 2024, 2021, 2019.
• NJ.com, "N.J. taxpayers cough up 860K to fix governor's mansion" (October 26, 2019)
• NJ.com, "See how much N.J. taxpayers have spent for Christie's security detail" (February 24, 2017)
• The New York Times, "Governors Don't Call This Home" (November 19, 2009)
• The New York Times, "Corzine to Make Early Exit From Hospital Monday" (April 30, 2007)
• Princeton Perspectives, "Bringing Drumthwacket to Life" (June 16, 2025)
• Morris Daily Record, "Mikie Sherrill to move to governor's mansion. See inside Drumthwacket" (April 3, 2026)
• David Wildstein, New Jersey Globe, "Gov. Sherrill plans to move into Drumthwacket" (April 2, 2026)
• Jersey Vindicator, "Governor to move into Drumthwacket mansion in Princeton full-time" (April 4, 2026).
• Drumthwacket Foundation, "History & Timeline"