When the first snow settles on gray Bedford limestone, a Gilded Age mansion looks the way it was always meant to look: a little theatrical, a little haunted, and lit from within. If you have been searching for a mansion tour in Minneapolis, or hoping to find some Christmas at the mansion before the holidays slip away, this guide sorts out what you can actually do, and where.

What is the Gilded Age mansion tour in Minneapolis?

The Gilded Age Mansion Tour is a Minneapolis Trolley Tours experience that departs from the Pillsbury Club and offers a look at Minneapolis mansions from the outside and from the inside. Flour, lumber, grain and grocery fortunes built these houses along Park Avenue, Mount Curve and the streets around Loring Park, and the tour page profiles each one: the family, the industry behind the money, the architect and the year it went up. It is the closest thing the city has to an old house tour that lets you cover several of them in a single outing. Tour dates and tickets are on the trolley company’s box office page or by phone at (612) 900-3220.

Why start at the Pillsbury Mansion?

Because the starting point is itself one of the great houses. The Charles S. Pillsbury Mansion at 100 East 22nd Street was built from 1912 to 1914, designed by Hewitt and Brown in the English Gothic Revival style, and clad in gray Bedford limestone. It is often called the mansion flour built, since the Pillsbury milling fortune paid for it, and it is on the National Register of Historic Places. Our architect’s count of its floors, 22,186 square feet in all, explains why the house still stops people on the sidewalk.

Today the house operates as the Pillsbury Club, open to guests with a reservation for a tour, dining experience, event or other scheduled activity. Plan to arrive 30 to 45 minutes early to check in and explore, and parking is complimentary, including a lot across the street. If it is your first time, our first visit guide walks through what to expect, and our rundown of which Pillsbury Club experience to book helps you choose between the mansion tour, ghost tours and the rest.

Can you do a Christmas mansion tour in Minneapolis?

Yes, and the Pillsbury Club is built for it. Every Holiday Light Ride boards inside the mansion, and a holiday market runs at the Club before and after the ride, with local makers, festive food and holiday cocktails. That means a Christmas mansion tour in Minneapolis can be as simple as arriving early, wandering the historic rooms and market, riding the heated vintage trolley past the glowing streets, and coming back to the house when it is over.

There are two rides. Santa’s Nice Ride is the family-friendly one, about an hour long, and everyone votes for their favorite decorated home. The Naughty Holiday Party Ride is 21 and over, about two hours, and BYOB; you bring your drinks straight onto the heated trolley instead of dragging a cooler to a bar or parking lot first. For the full evening timeline, see our night-out timeline from parking to boarding, and browse the Minnesota Market before you go.

Other historic houses in the Twin Cities run their own holiday programs, and dates and tour formats change every year, so check each venue directly. Meet Minneapolis keeps a handy events calendar for the season.

Where can you tour a mansion and stay the night?

Our sister property 300 Clifton, the Eugene J. Carpenter Mansion in Loring Park, is the only mansion in Minneapolis you can tour and sleep in. Its Georgian architecture earned a National Register listing in 1977, and Eugene Carpenter chaired the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts from 1911 to 1922, the group that became the Minneapolis Institute of Art, which is why the house is called the birthplace of the arts in Minneapolis. Guests learn the story through in-room information, QR codes around the estate and knowledgeable staff; the 300 Clifton history page tells it in full. To pair a lights ride with a night in a mansion, read where to see the best holiday lights in Minneapolis.

For a longer stay downtown, Oakland’s on 9th offers furnished studios, and if you want to dig into the wider story of the city that built these houses, the Minnesota Historical Society is the best place to start.

Ready to step inside?

Reserve the Gilded Age Mansion Tour for the history, or the Holiday Light Ride for the glow. Either way, your evening starts in a house flour built. Call (612) 900-3220 or visit the plan your visit page and we will see you at the door.

Keep reading: What was the 2025 permit schedule for rehabilitating the Pillsbury Mansion?