About Us

This beautiful villa tower Italianate mansion is located at 400 South Walton Boulevard.  Built in 1875 by Colonel Samuel West Peel, it was originally a working farmstead surrounded by 180 acres of apple trees.  This historic site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Colonel Peel, pioneer businessman, Indian agent and Confederate soldier, was the first native born Arkansan to be elected to the United States Congress.  He and his wife, Mary Emaline Berry Peel, raised nine children here.  Upon moving to Bentonville in 1868, he served as Prosecuting Attorney as well as being a banker, merchant and was a large landowner.

Much care was taken in erecting this magnificent home.  The walls are made of local brick and the interior walls are 18 to 24” thick.  Exterior stone sills and lintels were finely carved by local stone masons.  The front hall is a sophisticated presentation of rare pine graining and it features a gracefully turned walnut balustrade stairway.  Colonel Peel’s library exhibits a rare Anglo-Japanese mantle and there is unusual Greek Revival molded trim in the parlor.  Rugs, coverlets, furniture and other accessories create a truly authentic interior of the early Victorian period.

The Peel Mansion site is also an outdoor museum of historic roses, perennials and native plants.  Descendants of early settlers were interviewed for their childhood memories of early gardens.  The 1845 Jacob Smith Nursery list served as a documentary source.  Various vignette gardens are interlaced among curvilinear walks and large shade trees creating a most appropriate setting for this great historic building of northwest Arkansas.

Also on the site is the pre-Civil War Andy Lynch log cabin which was removed from Brightwater, Arkansas to the Peel site.  It serves as a gatehouse and gift shop at the entrance to the grounds.

The site is available for weddings, receptions, seminars and corporate events.

The Mansion is open for tours Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.  For further information, please call 479-273-9664 or visit our website at www.peelmansion.org.  WINNER OF 2008 READER'S CHOICE AWARD FOR "#1 BEST SITE TO HOLD AN EVENT".