03 / 12 · Signature
The Mansion on N Highland
One of the surviving Queen Anne mansions on Millionaires' Row, converted to four short-term residences.
Highland Park, PA · 4 units · 4 beds · 4 baths · 2024 – 2026
My Work
- Full interior design across all four apartments
- Furnishing and styling to the house's own period proportion
- All listing photography
- Listing copy for each unit
- Guest experience and hospitality operations
Challenge
A Queen Anne mansion on Highland Park's Millionaires' Row — stone, brick, original bargeboard, original scale. Time had dulled the interior without touching the bones. The task was to convert four distinct apartments without reducing the house to a product.
Approach
Each unit was designed as its own room rather than as a replicated formula. Scale restored where time had reduced it. Furnishings sourced to the house's own proportion — nothing added that the architecture didn't ask for. Original millwork cleaned and kept throughout.
Result
Four apartments opened in 2024. The building ranked at the top of the Pittsburgh short-term rental market by average daily rate in its inaugural year and sustained combined occupancy above eighty-five percent across all units. The flagship apartment consistently ranked among the highest-ADR short-term rentals in the city and earned Superhost status within its first operating quarter. No comparable inventory had existed in Highland Park prior to the building's opening.
Unit 1
PREMIER
The full front-of-house — one bedroom, one bath, original eleven-foot ceilings throughout. Period millwork untouched, furnishings sourced to proportion rather than current taste. The first apartment completed and the one that established the rate ceiling for the building. Entry hall, formal dining, full kitchen, and a bedroom suite that occupies the front of the second floor. No comparable short-term rental has matched it on average daily rate in the Highland Park market.
1 bed
1 bath
sleeps 4
Unit 2
Ground-floor one-bedroom with private access to the mansion's side garden and a furnished porch along the original garden elevation. The entry hall is finished in a deep botanical wallpaper — a deliberate shift in register from the floors above. White oak herringbone throughout, marble bath, full kitchen. The porch seats four and opens to the grounds.
1 bed
1 bath
sleeps 4
Unit 3
Mid-floor one-bedroom, accessed by the mansion's original carved staircase. The bedroom is finished in a saturated pink botanical wallpaper with a bay window that draws the tree line in. The sitting room reads cooler — white wainscoting, gray sectional, marble coffee table. Full kitchen, full bath with gold hardware throughout. The apartment most consistently requested for a couple's stay.
1 bed
1 bath
sleeps 2
Unit 4
Top-floor one-bedroom. Pink botanical wallpaper, arched headboard, mirrored wardrobe wall. The living space opens directly from the bedroom — compact and well-considered. Full kitchen with Nespresso, marble shower, Nest amenities throughout. The highest point in the building, with the roofline ornament visible from the bedroom.
1 bed
1 bath
sleeps 2
The Mansion on N Highland, its photography, and its listing copy were authored by Sophia Tomson between 2024 and 2026.