The mansion was built as a private residence in 1915 by a prosperous coal and cattle baron, the mansion was designed for entertaining. Daniel Burnside Zimmerman made his fortune in cattle in the West and coal in the East. His business career began at the age of 14, when drawn by a magazine article, the farm boy left home for North Dakota to make his first cattle purchase in 1877. Cattle bearing th
e “Z” brand soon grazed over hundreds of thousands of acres stretching from the Dakotas to California and into Mexico. At age 50, D.B. Zimmerman was called the largest independent cattle dealer in the United States. In Somerset County, Zimmerman was best known for his development of coal resources. He was at the forefront of the county’s mining industry when, in 1898, he developed mines at the Goodtown, and later in company towns of Wilson Creek, Ralphton, and Zimmerman. In 1907, Zimmerman’s Somerset County Coal interests totaled more than 140,000 acres, and by age 45, D.B. Zimmerman was the county’s largest independent coal operator. D.B. lived in the house with his wife, Lizzie, son Ralph, who joined him in the business, and his daughter, Sally. Although Sally was unable to work with him at the time, she acted as the official hostess for the many parties he held over the years and traveled the country with him to visit his many holdings. Mrs. Zimmerman, who enjoyed a much simpler life, preferred to stay at home, often in the kitchen. Zimmerman died in 1928 at the age of 65, the richest man in the county. His daughter Sally, who never married, lived in the home until 1944 when she sold it to a local coal operator. The Zimmerman mansion, designed by Horace Trumbauer, occupies a notable place in the architectural annals of Somerset County. Many local newsmen of the day described the mansion as “Somerset’s Most Pretentious Home”. Local engineer, Harvey Hostetler, supervised construction of the mansion while E. Walker, a Somerset architect, claimed some of the responsibility for the building design. The building measures 136 feet in length and consists of a central structure with asymmetrical North and South wings. The central portion of the mansion included a living room, dining room, drawing room and a marble floored entrance hall. A grand staircase, supported by large columns, provided access to the second floor consisting of three enormous bedrooms, a library, a den, and down the hall two servants’ rooms. The third floor has four bedrooms and a large cedar closet with over thirty drawers and doors. The north wing contained the breakfast room and kitchen, while the one story southern wing housed a tile floor conservatory. The main structure houses the living room, formal dining room, and family dining room. The house, paneled throughout with native woods, was decorated with polished brass and silver wall fixtures, crystal and gold leafed chandeliers, elegant moldings and 9 fireplaces. The mansion has been restored to its original grandeur and opened in 2010 as The Georgian Inn of Somerset.
