The Steele Mansion in Painesville Ohio

The Steele Mansion in Painesville Ohio (just outside of Cleveland) has only started taking guests over the last year or so.  This great, historic inn is truly lucky to still be around, and I am glad that you can stay there now!

George Steele had the home built in 1867, and his family lived there until the early 1900s.  Then, it was sold to Lake Erie College.  The college utilized it as the President's home and in other ways.

It was sold again in the 1970s and turned into apartments.  In 2001 a fire destroyed a large portion of the formerly fabulous structure.  It was not repaired, and it was left abandoned for the rest of that decade.

In 2010 the Shamakian family bought the Mansion, which was literally falling apart and was scheduled to be demolished.  So, for the last several years, the Shamakians have hustled to save the structure from falling apart and destruction.

Now, in 2016, the Steele Mansion looks absolutely beautiful and flawless.


You know that I love visiting sites associated with Presidents.  Well, several stayed here, but I was even more fascinated by the fact that AMELIA EARHART was a guest here shortly before she disappeared!

Jack of all trades/owner Carol Shamakian was all over the place during our stay.  We saw her decorating and doing work in the yard, and she seemed excited to talk to us about the Mansion.

She confirmed the Earhart was there visiting the local college.  During her visit, she did stay at the Steele Mansion, which, at that time, was the President of the college's home.

We mentioned to Carol that we would be visiting the James Garfield home on this trip, and she said that Garfield had been to the Mansion during his days in the area.  She said that he made speeches from the front porch of the Steele Mansion, in addition to speaking from his own front porch.

Concerning our stay, we wanted to enjoy as much time at the Steele Mansion as we could, so we planned much of our evening around just hanging out in our room, and on the porch.

There are some cozy rocking chairs on the back porch.  We did relax in that area as we read.

The Steele Mansion is in an urban area.  There are houses, shops (including a large shopping mall) and traffic going by.  It is easy to forget about all of that here though.  The inn has a very relaxing feel to it.

There is a bar inside.  Private events are held here frequently too.  An actual restaurant would do great here.


We did have a great hot and cold breakfast buffet in the morning before we left.  Breakfast is in the Mansion's cavernous basement.  The rest of the building feels old but updated.  The basement is very authentically old.  They don't make them like this these days!  It was a very cool place to enjoy breakfast!

Check this place out the next time you are in the Cleveland area!