The original street plan of the city of Raleigh had designated Burke Square as a possible location for the governor's residence. Burke Square was already occupied by the Raleigh Academy by the time the state decided to build and a different site for the house was chosen. The legislature passed a bill in 1883 under Governor Jarvis's prompting, to authorize the construction on Burke Square of Raleigh's third official gubernatorial residence. The bill provided for its major furnishings and required that the governor occupy the new dwelling. Prison labor was used for construction and building materials were used that could be made at the local penitentiary when feasible. Samuel Sloan, of Philadelphia, and his assistant, Aldophus Gustavus Bauer, were chosen as architects. Sloan arrived in Raleigh with his designs for the elaborate structure in April 1883 and work began in early summer. Sloan died in 1885, six years before the completion of the house, and Bauer assumed full responsibility for the remainder of the project. Bauer remained in North Carolina to become one of the state's most important nineteenth-century architects.