Glensheen Mansion

My Lovely and I enjoy touring Historic homes. The Glensheen Mansion was excellent and an awesome choice to break up a drive day.

This historic mansion offers a fascinating glimpse into the past with its well-preserved architecture, original furnishings, and beautiful grounds.

Glensheen Mansion is a 39-room historic estate on Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota, built by the Congdon family between 1905 and 1908.

The house is 20,000 square feet and spectacular. The gardens, the lake shore, the boat house on Lake Superior are all outstanding.

The Congdon family's wealth came from leasing land for iron ore. This home was used by the family until 1977 and the furnishings are all original. The home was donated to the University of Minnesota who maintains, preserves and restores the home. Unlike many of the historic homes we have visited, the gardens have been well maintained which adds to the awe of the home.

This home is from the gilded age. It was designed and built incredibly well with steel, concrete, stone and hardwood.

The Congdons had 8 children, most of whom grew up in this house. It was well laid out for such a family and each area and room having customized furnishings and decor to the person living in that room. You feel the personality of each family member in their respective room.

Obviously, anyone could go on about the beauty of the pieces in the house.

Something that particularly touched my heart was on the lower level with the billiard room and the amusement room. The largest room in the house is a room that runs under the upper terrace of the gardens. It is an indoor playroom where the children could run, play, roller skate.

For the time when this house was built, the showers were extraordinary. Walk-in showers with valves that controlled a rain-type shower head, a valve that controlled body shower heads (4 heads in each of the 4 corners) as well as a handheld.

The showers were all done in subway tile (always a classic).

Another thing that surprised me was that the tour included a trip up to the attic. The attic was full of the family's items and is a working attic for the university managing the house. It had everything from kids toys to rugs and old furniture. Also, in the attic you get a peek at the steel superstructure of the house.

Lastly, as I said, this house is furnished with original items as opposed to period pieces brought in to illustrate what would have been in the house at a specific time. Being that this house was lived in until 1977, it is interesting that the kitchen was not full of modern (50's, 60's or 70's) kitchen equipment. It has the original stove (industrial). However, I fully expect that there was at some time, a Frigidaire somewhere at some time.

The last Congdon to live there was the youngest daughter Elisabeth. She was tragically murdered in her 80s by her adopted daughter (and the son-in-law) for the inheritance.

The murder (and some amazing details) is not mentioned in the tour because the family did not want this to be the focus.

The tour itself is a self-guided cellphone tour. It is very well organized — the most organized of any tour we have ever done. They do timed entries and manage the amount of traffic which makes the tour just that much more enjoyable.Read more