Mansion Hill Inn in Madison, Dane County, United States | Inn

The McDonnell-Pierce house was the first residence on “Big Bug Hill”, Victorian Madison's most elegant neighborhood, now known as Mansion Hill.

Mansion Hill Inn at 424 N. Pinckney St., Madison WI in the United States, is one of the four historic mansions still standing at the North Pinckney-East Gilman intersection, on the ridge along Lake Mendota.

Alexander McDonnell built the German Romanesque Revival building, considered by some to be the finest of its type in the country, in 1857.

The ornate exterior of Mansion Hill Inn, which was never altered, includes wrought iron from the balconies to buttresses and arched windows.

Inside the 9,000 square foot mansion is a four-story, oval-shaped mahogany spiral staircase leading to a belvedere. Light passes into the marble foyer through etched Venetian windows. Originally, there were oil-painted wall designs.

The mansion's days as a single-family residence ended at the turn-of-the-century. It then became a fashionable boarding house run by Carrie Pierce, and some of the area's most notable citizens lived there.

In the 1930's, well after boarding houses fell out of favor, the building was converted into apartments, a condition that persisted until its recent renovation in 1983, when the Alexander Company purchased Mansion Hill Inn, and made it the elegant hotel it is today.

Once  Mansion Hill Inn was surrounded by a grove of butternut trees, gardens and a stable of Arabian horses. Now the grounds are landscaped into a Victorian garden with a beautiful fountain.