The Gilded Age in Minnesota: The Gorgeous Home of a Real-Life Railroad Tycoon : Annie Elliott Design

Like many of you, Gentle Readers, I have been tearing through The Gilded Age on HBOMax.

Cynthia Nixon and Christine Baranski in The Gilded Age TV show — The FABULOUS Cynthia Nixon and Christine Baranski in an equally fabulous gilded ballroom

Created by Julian Fellowes of Downton Abbey fame, it essentially IS Downton Abbey, just earlier and New-York-ier. Mr. Fellowes clearly embraces the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach to show development, and I, for one, am not complaining.

Carrie Coon and Morgan Spencer in The Gilded Age TV show — Of *course* the gowns are breathtaking, but check out the swags and jabots on the windows!

Anyway, I found myself in St. Paul, Minnesota this past weekend, and I had the pleasure of visiting the home of REAL LIFE railroad magnate James J. Hill.

Exterior of Richardsonian Romanesque mansion, built of rugged brown stone — This is not what February in Minnesota looks like

Designed by the architectural firm Peabody and Stearns in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, the massive house was completed in 1891. And I do mean massive: the house has 36,000 square feet of living space that includes 19 bedrooms. 19!!

View from the North. Photo from Wikipedia

Tragically — and this is not hyperbole; it IS tragic — the house contains no original furniture. None. Everything you see in these pictures (and there isn’t much) is a replacement. I was hugely disappointed, of course, but three features of the house almost made up for it.

First is the intricate, hand-carved wood. Whereas the interiors of the mansions in the TV show The Gilded Age are tall, light, open, and airy…

Grand living room from The Gilded Age television show — Louisa Jacobson (writers are going out of their way to avoid saying that she’s Meryl Streep’s daughter, but she’s Meryl Streep’s daughter)

…Hill House has dark, carved wood on the walls, stairs, columns, fireplace surrounds and beams in all public spaces.

Dark carved wood staircase from James J. Hill House in St. Paul MN — From the other side

It gets quite dark and moody. I love dark and moody.

Historic dark carved wood fireplace — Part of the entry hall

The grand staircase, photo from Wikipedia

Breakfast room from the Gilded Age time period with dark carved wood — The breakfast room

The second remarkable feature is the gold-leaf ceiling in the dining room.

Dining room with wooden beams and a gold-leaf ceiling — So hard to get a good shot…

Not paint, actual gold leaf. These pictures do not do it justice: the ceiling is stunning.

Gilded Age dining room with a gold-leaf ceiling — Photo from the Minnesota Historical Society

The third and final feature is the Italian, hand-tooled leather wallcovering in the same dining room.

Leather wallcovering and carved wood on dining room walls — The juxtaposition of the ceiling with this wallcovering — and the carved wood! — is outrageous!

Ornate gold wall sconce with 5 lights — Educational interlude. No bulbs are missing here: this is a dual electric-gas wall sconce!

The wallcovering is in such bad condition now…it doesn’t look grand anymore. It looks kind of creepy, actually. Flaky and reptilian.

But just imagine how amazing it must have been in 1891! It looks like it used to be rich golds and greens. Showy, yes, but amazing and stylish? ALSO YES!

It’s so sad that it couldn’t be preserved

That’s the fun of visiting house museums, for me: imagining how people actually lived in the space. We know that President McKinley had a meal or two in this room…I certainly hope he appreciated the wallcovering.

Annie Elliott Design is based in Washington, DC, with offices in St. Michaels, Maryland and Middlebury, Vermont. Thank you, Houzz community, for voting us Best of Houzz – Design for the third time!