The Madrona – a Paxton-era mansion reborn above Dry Creek Valley

The Madrona occupies a Second Empire mansion raised in 1880–81 for John Alexander Paxton, a San Francisco financier and state legislator who commuted to the city by train or on horseback and spent his weekends on the hilltop estate he called Madrona Knoll Rancho. The house passed through decades as a country inn and a storied restaurant before closing in March 2020; in 2021 designer Jay Jeffers and his partner Cory Schisler bought the eight-acre property and spent $6 million restoring it, reopening in spring 2022 under a new name. Today The Madrona holds 24 rooms spread between the original mansion, its carriage house and a scatter of bungalows among the trees, all overlooking the Dry Creek Valley. The MICHELIN Guide gives it two Keys, awarded in both 2024 and 2025 — recognition that sits naturally alongside a restaurant pedigree stretching back to a Michelin star first earned here in 2008.

01The house

The mansion itself — a three-storey, gabled Second Empire structure designed by the architects Ludwig and Guerne — has overlooked the Dry Creek Valley and the long profile of Mount St Helena ever since.

The estate opened to the public as a country inn and restaurant in 1981 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, its Victorian detailing and wraparound porch protected rather than altered through every subsequent change of hands. When Jeffers took over in 2021, roughly 750 pieces of original furniture came with the house; about a third were restored and worked back into the new interiors, among them a 200-year-old piano now standing in the Drawing Room. The look he settled on draws on the Aesthetic Movement that was current when the house was built — ochre and lavender-blue tones, new light fixtures and art from San Francisco's Dolby Chadwick Gallery replacing the heavier Victorian palette of before.

02Rooms and suites

The 24 rooms divide between the Mansion and Carriage House — Studio rooms within the original architecture, Salon rooms occupying the mansion's former primary bedrooms with high ceilings and bay windows, and Salon rooms with private balconies looking over the valley — and a run of Bungalows dating to 1861, scattered through the gardens with their own entrances and decks, including studios, one- and two-bedroom suites and an Owner's Loft tucked into the estate's historic Ranch House.

Insider tip

A mile from town, with complimentary e-bikes and house car service into Healdsburg.

No two rooms match, a consequence of the house's idiosyncratic original floor plan, but all share Flamingo Estate bath amenities, Bellino Italian linens and, in many cases, working fireplaces. Daily turndown and housekeeping are standard, as is a breakfast that runs to fresh-squeezed orange juice from the garden and house-made pastries alongside rotating chef dishes.

03Where to eat

The Restaurant at The Madrona works from the mansion's original parlours and an outdoor Palm Terrace, under executive chef Patrick Tafoya and chef de cuisine Phi Nguyen, drawing on produce grown in the estate's own half-acre of farmed gardens, which the hotel runs on regenerative principles. In its earlier life as Madrona Manor, the restaurant held a MICHELIN star from 2008, retaining it for thirteen consecutive years — a run of recognition that set the tone for what the kitchen does today, from a Wednesday fried-chicken service to a seasonal prix-fixe lunch.

Current service runs breakfast for hotel guests from 7.30am, lunch Wednesday to Friday, weekend brunch and dinner nightly, alongside a Monday-to-Thursday social hour — hours confirmed on the hotel's own site in October 2026.

04The bar

Hannah's Bar is the house's intimate cocktail room, built around inventive cocktails, rare spirits and a wine list that reaches well beyond Sonoma to winemakers further afield. The signature Estate Martini is finished with nasturtium oil grown on the property, a small, direct link between the bar and the garden a short walk up the hill. The bar opens daily from mid-afternoon into the evening, with space kept for walk-ins alongside reservations.

05Wellbeing and grounds

A seasonal, guest-only saltwater pool sits within the eight acres of gardens and orchard that surround the mansion, and a former maintenance shed has been converted into a gymnasium fitted with Peloton and Tonal equipment. Complimentary electric bikes are available for the ride into town, and overnight valet parking includes EV charging — practical touches layered onto a property that still trades on its wooded, hillside seclusion.

06The neighbourhood

The Madrona sits about a mile from Healdsburg's main square, close enough for an easy walk or bike ride into a town built around tasting rooms, galleries and restaurants, yet far enough up its own private road to feel removed from it. The hotel's position above the Dry Creek Valley — one of Sonoma County's most concentrated clusters of small wineries — puts the appellation's vineyards directly on the doorstep, with the long silhouette of Mount St Helena visible from the grounds on a clear day.

07Making the most of a stay

The garden is worth building time around: half an acre of regeneratively farmed beds supplies the kitchen and bar daily, and the hotel runs a seasonal Garden Supper Club and an October wine residency with guest producers. For a slower afternoon, the complimentary e-bikes make the ride into Healdsburg Plaza an easy half-hour round trip, and the house car service covers the same ground, plus runs out to nearby wineries, without needing to drive.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.