Castle La Crosse Bed and Breakfast

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Castle La Crosse Bed and Breakfast Stay this October - December Book Now! Also taking Reservations into June 2027! Castle La Crosse is a Bed and Breakfast located in beautiful La Crosse, WI.

Between the river and the bluffs, come stay with us! Explore the Driftless Region. Spectacular Bed and Breakfast located in charming La Crosse, Wisconsin. This 1892 house features five guest suites all with private baths, free wi-fi and a lavish morning breakfast. Guests have access to ground floor accommodations that include the music room, library, sun porch and much more. Whether you are an historic home lover or not, all will appreciate the splendor located inside this magical home.

The Sunroom at the CastleWhere old stone walls meet panes of light,A little garden hides from night.Great emerald leaves...
09/28/2026

The Sunroom at the Castle

Where old stone walls meet panes of light,
A little garden hides from night.
Great emerald leaves stretch overhead,
While geraniums glow their brightest red.

The windows gather afternoon,
And hold it there a little too soon;
Green-painted walls, both deep and wise,
Borrow their color from garden skies.

A lady of clay stands quietly by,
Watching the seasons wander by.
The old carved vines climb toward the beams,
Like wooden remnants of forest dreams.

Blue chairs wait with cushions warm,
Safe from winter, rain, and storm;
While high above, the lantern gleams,
Keeping watch on leafy dreams.

Perhaps when everyone has gone,
And moonlight replaces the setting sun,
The plants lean close, the statues speak,
And ancient stones begin to creak.

For castles need their secret rooms—
Not every chamber needs grand plumes.
Some simply ask for leaves and light,
A chair, a book, and stars at night.

And here, behind the walls of stone,
The sun has found a room of its own. 🌿☀️

Autumn Comes to the CastleAutumn has entered the castle,not loudly,but carrying armfuls of color—rose-colored chrysanthe...
09/27/2026

Autumn Comes to the Castle

Autumn has entered the castle,
not loudly,
but carrying armfuls of color—
rose-colored chrysanthemums,
pumpkins pale as old ivory,
gourds of amber, green and gold,
and corn gathered from September fields.

Across the long dining table
the harvest wanders freely,
as though the garden itself
had slipped through the doors
and settled beneath the warm glow
of polished wood.

At the great hearth
summer gives its final treasures—
flowers tucked among pumpkins,
leaves turning crimson and bronze,
while carved vines above the mantel
seem almost to grow again
in the autumn light.

The old rooms understand the season.

They have watched more than a century
of Octobers arrive—
sunlight shortening across the floors,
evenings gathering earlier at the windows,
the first chill calling everyone
closer to the fire.

And somewhere in the quiet hall
a great chrysanthemum blooms,
pink against the dark wood,
extravagant and joyful,
as though refusing to believe
that summer has gone.

For a little while
the castle becomes a harvest itself—
wood and flowers,
fruit and flame,
memory and home—

and autumn,
finding the door open,
comes inside

Stuffed Squash @ Castle La CrosseAlways a favorite, any time of year.
09/24/2026

Stuffed Squash @ Castle La Crosse

Always a favorite, any time of year.

A Castle Made DomesticCastle La Crosse, 1892This view captures the extraordinary picturesque character of Castle La Cros...
09/17/2026

A Castle Made Domestic

Castle La Crosse, 1892

This view captures the extraordinary picturesque character of Castle La Crosse. Rather than presenting a single symmetrical façade, architects Gustav and Hugo Schick assembled the residence as a succession of contrasting forms: massive rock-faced stone walls, a monumental gable, projecting window bays, sheltered porches, tall chimneys, and the soaring round tower with its conical roof.

The architecture deliberately evokes the permanence and romance of a European castle, yet the building remains unmistakably a late-nineteenth-century American residence. Large windows, projecting bays, porches, and interconnected interior rooms bring light, views, and sociability into what might otherwise appear to be a fortress-like structure.

Seen at dusk, the contrast becomes especially vivid. Warm light emerging through the windows transforms the heavy masonry, revealing the fundamental idea behind the design: a house that presents itself outwardly as a castle while remaining inwardly designed for domestic life, hospitality, and entertainment.

Castle La Crosse demonstrates how Gilded Age architects could transform the imagery of medieval architecture into a thoroughly modern American home

Exterior Door Annunciator, c. 1892Installed at the mansion’s exterior entrances, this signaling contact alerted househol...
09/10/2026

Exterior Door Annunciator, c. 1892
Installed at the mansion’s exterior entrances, this signaling contact alerted household servants when a monitored door was operated. Part of Castle La Crosse’s sophisticated domestic communication system, it allowed servants working elsewhere in the large residence to respond to activity at entrances without continuously staffing each door.

08/30/2026

Finished View of the Garden Room Patio

08/26/2026

Status update Garden Room Patio

08/24/2026

Exciting changes to Garden Room… stay tuned

A Family Crest Transformed in GlassArt Glass Ensemble · c. 1892Holway Mansion — Castle La CrosseThis remarkable art-glas...
08/24/2026

A Family Crest Transformed in Glass

Art Glass Ensemble · c. 1892

Holway Mansion — Castle La Crosse

This remarkable art-glass ensemble is more than decoration. Its imagery was conceived as an artistic homage to the Hogan family crest, representing the family heritage of the lady of the house.

Rather than reproducing the crest literally, the designer transformed its imagery into a sophisticated decorative composition. Interlaced knotwork, golden circular forms, pearl-like strands, flowering vines, and jewel-toned accents move across the individual panels, uniting the windows into a single work of art. Pale blues, warm ambers, opalescent whites, and textured glass capture and diffuse daylight throughout the room.

The window belongs to a larger heraldic program within the mansion. The Hogan crest and related imagery appear repeatedly throughout the house, including stained glass, the carved mantel of the reception parlor, and exterior stonework. Rendered in glass, wood, and stone, these references made family heritage a permanent part of the architecture.

For a visitor, the transformed imagery would have made the room an experience of gradual recognition rather than immediate explanation. At first, the eye might move through the windows as a field of flowers, jewelry-like forms, and intricate ornament. Light would continually alter the balance of color and texture, encouraging the visitor to look again and notice relationships among the panels. The design’s decorative richness could therefore be appreciated without any knowledge of heraldry, while its repeated forms and carefully organized composition suggested that the ornament carried a deeper meaning.

That meaning would become more legible as the visitor encountered related imagery elsewhere in the mansion. Seen alongside the carved mantel and exterior stonework, the glass could read not as an isolated pattern but as part of a visual language associated with the Hogan family. The crest was present without being presented as a formal emblem; it was encountered through atmosphere, repetition, and detail. In this way, the design could make family identity feel embedded in the visitor’s surroundings rather than simply placed on display.

In Castle La Crosse, family identity was not simply displayed—it was woven into the fabric of the house.

Objects of Art in the Victorian InteriorBeauty, Nature, and DisplayBy the 1890s, the fashionable American home was incre...
08/17/2026

Objects of Art in the Victorian Interior

Beauty, Nature, and Display

By the 1890s, the fashionable American home was increasingly conceived as a work of art. Sculpture, carved wood, ornamental furniture, textiles, and exotic plants were carefully arranged to create an atmosphere of beauty, culture, and refinement. This approach reflected late-Victorian ideas associated with the Aesthetic Movement, which encouraged the integration of fine and decorative arts throughout the domestic interior.

Here, sculptural figures and richly carved wooden forms mingle with towering tropical foliage. A small ornamental pedestal table provides a place of honor for sculpture—an arrangement characteristic of Gilded Age interiors, where pedestals and specialized furniture transformed treasured objects into focal points.

The plants were important to the effect as well. Their enormous leaves introduce living color and dramatic natural forms into the room, blurring the distinction between garden, conservatory, and interior decoration.

Together, these objects demonstrate a central Victorian principle: a beautiful room was not merely furnished—it was composed. Furniture, art, plants, architecture, and ornament worked together to create an environment intended to delight the eye and reveal the taste of its occupants.

Address

1419 Cass Street
La Crosse, WI
54601

Telephone

+18447265808

Website

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