An 1881 Victorian mansion re-imagined by Jay Jeffers as a 24-room hotel with an outdoor pool and a kitchen-garden restaurant. The Madrona is the only Healdsburg property where the building is itself the strongest part of the brief.
"An 1881 Victorian mansion re-imagined by Jay Jeffers as a 24-room hotel with an outdoor pool and a kitchen-garden restaurant. The Madrona is the only Healdsburg property where the building is itself the strongest part of the brief."
The Madrona occupies the historic 1881 John Paxton mansion on a five-acre hillside estate on Westside Road, ten minutes' drive south of the Healdsburg town plaza and on the western edge of the Dry Creek Valley wine road. The original Italianate Victorian had run as a small inn for decades before a 2020 buyout by hospitality entrepreneur Jay Jeffers (the San Francisco-based interior designer) and a complete re-imagining; the property reopened in late 2021 as a 24-room boutique hotel that holds two Michelin Keys for 2024 and 2025, putting it in the top tier of US hotel recognition under the Michelin scheme.
Rooms are arranged across the mansion proper, a series of restored garden cottages, and a contemporary annex. Mansion rooms hold the original architectural detail (twelve-foot ceilings, plaster mouldings, marble fireplaces) and Jeffers's signature high-pattern wallpaper, jewel-tone velvets, and antique furniture; bathrooms here are renovated to modern standards with deep soaking tubs and walk-in showers. Garden cottage rooms run to roughly 500 square feet with private terraces opening onto the lower lawn and the pool. The largest accommodation, the Garden Suite, holds a separate sitting room with a working fireplace, an outdoor shower, and a private plunge pool, and is the only category that can be booked with an adjoining second bedroom.
The restaurant is the property's other defining feature. Run by executive chef Jesse Mallgren (previously a long tenure at the Madrona under prior ownership and at Cyrus in Geyserville), the menu is a daily-changing California seasonal with a heavy lean on the property's own three-quarter-acre kitchen garden and on producers from the immediate Dry Creek and Russian River appellations. The dining room seats 65 inside and another 40 on the wrap-around veranda; lunch and dinner run daily; the wine list focuses on small Sonoma and Mendocino growers with the obvious benchmarks (Williams Selyem, Rochioli, Bedrock) given proper representation. Breakfast is included for inn guests and served on the veranda when the weather permits.
The property runs an outdoor seasonal pool open seven in the morning to ten in the evening, a small spa with two treatment rooms (booked through the front desk, run by visiting therapists from a Healdsburg group practice), a fleet of complimentary e-bikes for the Dry Creek wine road, and a Tuesday-evening sommelier-led tasting of small Sonoma producers in the cellar bar. There is no fitness centre on site. Service is warm rather than formal, the staff-to-room ratio runs close to one to one, and the property is consistently rated among the top three boutique hotels in Northern California. For a guest who wants the wine country in a historic building with a real point of view, the Madrona is the clearest answer in Healdsburg.
For a Healdsburg honeymoon at the design-led end of the wine country market, the Madrona is the booking that gets the architectural mood right. Reserve the Garden Suite for the private plunge pool and the wood-burning fireplace, book the property's tasting-led dinner sequence at Mallgren's kitchen for the first night, and arrange a sommelier-driven tasting day across Dry Creek Valley (Quivira, Preston, Family of the Vine) through the concierge. The hotel sits well below Montage Healdsburg on price but matches it for romantic moment per dollar; the trade-off is a smaller spa and pool program.
An anniversary at the Madrona suits couples who want the wine country with character rather than with polish. Book a mansion room for the original architectural detail or the Garden Suite for a milestone year; arrange a private dinner on the veranda; and reserve a one-on-one sommelier-led tasting in the cellar bar for the Saturday afternoon. The fireplace and the soaking tub in every category, the seasonal restaurant, and the Jeffers-designed interior do the work of a more obvious resort romantic package without the stage management.
1001 Westside Road
Healdsburg, CA 95448
United States
South Healdsburg, 10 minutes from the town plaza, on the edge of Dry Creek Valley
24 rooms and suites
Garden cottage rooms from $625/night
Mansion rooms from $750/night
Suites from $1,200/night
Garden Suite with plunge pool from $2,400/night
Two-bedroom configurations to $3,500/night
Breakfast included
Check-in: 4:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
Re-opened 2021; Jay Jeffers design
Two Michelin Keys 2024 and 2025
1881 Italianate Victorian mansion on 5 acres
The Madrona restaurant (Jesse Mallgren), 65 seats indoor + 40 veranda
Seasonal outdoor pool
Small spa with two treatment rooms
Complimentary e-bike fleet for Dry Creek wine road
Tuesday cellar bar tastings
Three-quarter-acre on-site kitchen garden
From $625/night. Suites and signature rooms book three to six months ahead for peak weekends; standard categories one to two months.
See Current Rates →130 hillside bungalows on a 258-acre estate, the wine-country resort benchmark.
Five rooms above the three-Michelin-star restaurant, the most operationally precise small inn in the state.
55-room Design Hotels member on the town plaza, full spa, the central walking address.
Sign up for deal alerts: fifth night free offers, resort credits, and the upgrade windows we would book ourselves.