Hillforest

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Historic house in Indiana, United States

title: "Hillforest" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["houses-completed-in-1855", "national-register-of-historic-places-in-dearborn-county,-indiana", "houses-on-the-national-register-of-historic-places-in-indiana", "historic-american-buildings-survey-in-indiana", "italianate-architecture-in-indiana", "historic-house-museums-in-indiana", "national-historic-landmarks-in-indiana", "museums-in-dearborn-county,-indiana", "houses-in-dearborn-county,-indiana", "1855-establishments-in-indiana", "individually-listed-contributing-properties-to-historic-districts-on-the-national-register-in-indiana"] description: "Historic house in Indiana, United States" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillforest" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Historic house in Indiana, United States ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox NRHP"]

Field	Value
name	Hillforest (Forest Hill)
nrhp_type	nhl
nrhp_type2	cp
nocat	yes
image	Hillforest Mansion (Thomas Gaff House), Aurora, IN (48353560426).jpg
location	213 Fifth Street, Aurora, Indiana
coordinates
locmapin	Indiana#USA
area	11 acre
built
architect	Isaiah Rogers
architecture	Renaissance, Italian Villa
added	August 5, 1971
designated_nrhp_type	October 5, 1992
refnum	71000005
::

The Hillforest Mansion, also known as the Thomas Gaff House, is located at 213 Fifth Street, in Aurora, Indiana. Built in 1855 on a bluff above the Ohio River, it is one of the finest surviving examples of an Italian Renaissance estate house, and a rare well-preserved example of the work of architect Isaiah Rogers. The mansion, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992, is owned and operated by Hillforest Historical Foundation. It is located in the Downtown Aurora Historic District.

Description and history

Hillforest was designed by Isaiah Rogers and built in 1855 for Thomas Gaff (1808–1884), a Scottish born businessman who moved to Aurora in the 1840s. Gaff and his siblings had a large number of business interests, including alcohol production (distilleries and breweries), railroads, and steamships. The design of Hillforest is evocative of the steamships that plied the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in the 19th century.

The Hillforest estate is 11 acre in size, and includes, in addition to the house, formally landscaped gardens, a carriage house (a non-historic 1970s reconstruction), and land historically used for farming. The house is a 2-story frame structure covered by a low-pitch hip roof. Its main facade is finished in vertical wide board siding, while the other facades are finished in shiplap siding, with wooden quoin blocks at the corners. A semicircular section projects at the center of the main facade, rising to a belvedere on the roof. A single-story porch extends across the full width of the facade, with a second-story porch around the central projection. Windows are of full length, removing the need for doors to access the porches. The interior is sumptuously finished, with original Trompe-l'œil artwork on the walls.

The property remained in the Gaff family until 1926, when it was purchased by William Stark, a furniture manufacturer. The house served as a VFW lodge for a time, and was turned into a museum in 1956.

References

{{NRISref. 2007a
"Thomas Gaff House (Hillforest)". National Park Service.
["National Historic Landmark Nomination: Thomas Gaff House / Hillforest"]({{NHLS url). National Park Service}} and {{NHLS url.

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