Beiger Mansion

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Beiger Mansion, pronounced By-ger and commonly said Bee-ger, is at 317 Lincoln Way East in Mishawaka, Indiana. It was built in 1903 for Martin V. Beiger, Mishawaka’s first millionaire, and his wife Susie Higgins Beiger. The couple wanted a grand, Newport-inspired home, so construction began in 1903 with plans by Durham and Snyder and landscaping by Jens Jensen. Martin died in 1903, and Susie finished the house in 1908 at a cost of about $100,000.

The mansion is a 4 1/2-story neo-Classical (Classical Revival) building with about 21,790 square feet and roughly 40 rooms. It featured 11 fireplaces, 11 bedrooms, two dining rooms, a library, a ballroom, a billiards room, a music room with a costly three‑manual Aeolian organ, a solarium, a one‑lane bowling alley, a museum, and a very large first‑floor dining room. It was very modern for its time, with electric lighting, a central vacuum system, and radiator/forced‑air heating. An elevator was planned but the shaft was kept for extra safes, making the home famous for its huge, secure storage. Original woods included African mahogany, birds-eye maple, and teak, and several rooms had hand-painted silk murals. The grounds had gardens and a tennis court.

Susie Beiger lived there from 1908, hosting lavish entertainments with her staff. She died in 1927 after a fall on the main staircase. Because she did not have children, she left the mansion in trust to be used as a home for elderly women, funded by part of her estate. The home opened in 1930 and operated until 1967, by which time the surrounding grounds had been sold and a separate elderly home (the Dodge House) sat on part of the site.

In 1972, the mansion faced demolition to make way for a car lot, but the community and the Mishawaka Historical Society fought to save it. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 7, 1973. On January 20, 1975, a mysterious arson fire burned the mansion to the ground, leaving only the limestone walls, chimneys, and safes. Insurance was only about $75,000, so rebuilding was challenging.

The effort to rebuild continued. A roof was added by the mid‑to‑late 1980s, and on August 1, 1989, Ron Montandon bought the property and began restoring it. The current floor plan mirrors the original, and much of the landscaping follows the early plans. Interiors have been recreated from photographs and accounts. Today the Beiger Mansion operates as a six‑bedroom bed-and-breakfast and event venue, known as the Beiger Mansion Inn. In 2014 it won the Mishawaka Business Association’s Business of the Year award for 2013.