Life on Mars Hill evolved from primitive to elegant over the years.

The “Baronial Mansion,” where Lowell and Miss Leonard lived and worked, was originally a four-room “Observer’s Cottage” built 100 feet from the dome in 1894, but the structure was remodeled and expanded numerous times over the years.

Lowell seems to have embraced Mars Hill as his home after the extensive 1902 renovation of the Mansion and his return early in 1903 after a four-year illness. Six rooms were added, including servants' quarters and bedrooms for Lowell and Miss Leonard.

Lowell's bedroom

Miss Leonard's bedroom

Lowell sent detailed letters from Boston to his new assistant V.M. Slipher in Flagstaff on how the new rooms were to be designed and decorated in advance of his arrival. The updated structure was to be a place of comfort, with radiated heat as well as fireplaces, electrical lighting, built-in closets for the bedrooms, and niceties such as fine linens, china and glassware, a music box and a sunken bathtub.

Also added during this renovation was an odd underground passageway, built diagonally and running underneath the kitchen, butler’s pantry, den, and one bedroom. Trap doors at either end – one near the bathroom and the other on the new veranda just outside Lowell’s bedroom – opened to staircases leading down to the passage. 

Many have speculated about intended purpose of the passage. There was certainly a need to move about quietly during the wee hours (the Mansion was used as both residence and office space until the Slipher Building was added in 1916), but it’s also possible that Lowell added the underground hallway as a way to keep his after-hour whereabouts a secret.

The Baronial Mansion eventually grew to 18 rooms, but fell into gradual disrepair over the years and was torn down in 1959.