About the Thornton House Bed and Breakfast

The Thornton House is a grand mansion offering guests comfortable, upscale accommodations with a focus on being relaxing and casual at the same time. Thornton House Bed and Breakfast offers single or double fully decorated rooms with a full size help-yourself breakfast served 8:00am-9:30am daily.

Thornton House is also used by corporations and organizations for special occasions including vacations, graduation parties, celebrations, meetings, retreats, and banquets. We also accommodate hunters, fishermen and sportsmen alike with ample street parking and readily accessible electrical outlets if desired.

Our central location in Lansing Iowa is within a 5 minute walk of downtown shops, restaurants and grocery stores as well as the municipal swimming pool and other attractions such as the Mt. Hosmer summit with excellent hiking trails and Mississippi River valley vistas of Minnesota and Wisconsin from it's peak. Within a 10 minute walk of Thornton House you can be at the Mississippi River's edge where you can enjoy more shopping, fishing, swimming as well as riverboat excursions.

You are also welcome to spend time with the small resident dogs Ian, Olive and Murphy- a rambunctious trio kept in the lower level owners quarters. Although quiet, on occasion you may hear them frolicking in the backyard during the day so feel free to come by and say 'hi'!

A Historic Mansion and Grand Place to Stay

The Thornton House was built in 1873 by a grain shipping magnate by the name of Alexander McMichael during Lansing's economic boom when Lansing was bustling with new growth. The railroad had just come to town, the lumber business was reaching its peak, and homes like the Thornton House were being built on the city's hillsides to meet the needs of a growing population.

Its grand scale and Italianate Victorian styling speaks of the wealth of the time. Standing proud against the backdrop of the city's famous Mt. Hosmer summit, the Thornton House is uniquely positioned on a triangular shaped lot and distinguished by its bracketed wood cornice and lintels. The grounds are carefully landscaped to offer a full show throughout the season!

A country doctor and his son.

The Thornton House spans three generations of the Thornton family. During those 120 years of ownership, the house served as family home, medical office and pharmacy for doctors John H. and John W. Thornton. Father and son Thornton became known as, "the best medical team this side of the Mayo Clinic" Blanche Thornton, wife of John W., mother of their seven children and RN, assisted her husband and father-in-law with their practice.

For those who have a keen interest in medical history, we have a few of Dr. John H. Thornton's medical journals on hand where you can see handwritten notes on who came to the house and details regarding the care they received. In the journals, circa 1880, you will find Dr. John H. Thornton routinely did dental work such as extractions (for 50 cents a tooth) and rum was often used as a sedative. Also detailed in the journal , Doctor Thornton kept a mare at a local stable (presumably as transportation to and from out-of-town patients) where an ex-civil war Captain named E.B Bascomb boarded the horse for $10 a month. The Journals detail a successful medical practice wherein the Doctor earned in excess of $10,000 per year- a good sum in the 1880's.

There are also many period pictures of the Thorntons throughout the house for you to view and also to give you a sense of life as a Doctor in a small town.

Go back in time, stay as long as you please.

Mail: Thornton House Bed and Breakfast LLC., 371 Diagonal St., Lansing IA, 52151.
E-Contact: rooms@thethorntonhouse.c om , tel. (563) 538-3373.