MacDonell House, Victorian Mansion, Lima

About MacDonell House, Victorian Mansion

The MacDonell House is a restored Victorian mansion in Lima where visitors tour an 1893 home designed by architect Frank M. Leech. The 6,500 square-foot house contains five bedrooms, three full bathrooms, and seventeen rooms across three floors. Guests see six different parquet floors, coffered ceilings in three rooms, six fireplaces, and an Art Deco stained glass window depicting a landscape scene along the east stairway. German artisans hand-carved the quartered-sawed oak, cherry, and mahogany woodwork throughout. The mansion originally featured a billiard room on the third floor, later converted into a ballroom. The exterior combines roman brick on the first floor with red slate on the upper levels. Built for confectioner Frank Banta, the home housed five families before becoming a museum. The MacDonell House stands as the only remaining Victorian home on Lima's historic Golden Block, a neighborhood that flourished during Northwest Ohio's oil boom beginning in 1885. Tours are available by appointment at this location adjacent to the Allen County Museum.