Learn the History

The Kirkside Mansion was the main house on the beautiful estate that heiress Helen Gould Shepard built in 1896 and which was her summer residence until her death in 1938.

The estate comprised the mansion and its various outbuildings, a charming guest cottage, the verdant Kirkside Park, and Shepard Hills Golf Course with its extensive grounds.

A few years after Helen’s passing, the mansion was deeded to the Reformed Church of America and was used as a retirement home for ministers. As the mansion aged, it was eventually deemed too costly to maintain, throwing its future into jeopardy.

In 1980, a group of community-minded citizens raised funds to save the mansion and put it to use as the gracious retirement home that housed local residents for more than three decades.

Changing social and economic pressures led to the closure of the home in 2017, and again the mansion’s fate was unclear. 

Once again, community-minded citizens stepped up to rescue this historic treasure.  With the support of the MARK Project, a broad coalition of local residents has envisioned a “third life” for the glorious mansion.  In a series of all-day gatherings, this group developed and enunciated that vision:

To transform the mansion into a training ground for a new generation of hospitality workers and aspiring entrepreneurs in a fully operational hotel and restaurant that will provide key support for the tourism industry in the entire region.

That exciting vision has taken shape in the form of an architectural plan for the rebirth of the mansion as The Inn at Kirkside.