[2] After serving for several decades as a university residence, it has been adaptively reopened since August 2019 as a boutique hotel named Governor's Mansion Inn.

[2] The style is Italianate-influenced, showing in the low-pitched hip roof, the broad eaves supported by brackets, and the hood moulds over the windows.

One of Madison's first settlers, Delaplaine had been secretary to Governors Farwell and Dewey, and co-owned a large real estate development firm.

"In 1870, the Thorps' young daughter, Sara, married Ole Bull, the world-famous 60-year-old Norwegian violinist in one of the most lavish weddings the town had ever seen."

Bull treated the Thorp's house in Madison as his home in the U.S. and made changes to the grounds to suit his cosmopolitan taste, converting the slope toward the lake into a formal terraced garden.