The Glensheen Mansion

Thursday, September 17, 2015

It was raining pretty hard this morning so we delayed our departure for today’s activities.  It finally let up about 10AM, so we headed to the Glensheen Mansion.  This is a 27,000 sq ft, 39 room, “summer” home built by Chester and Clara Congdon on lakefront property a bit east of Duluth.  It was built between 1905-08. 

Chester Congdon was a lawyer by trade and bought a bunch of stock at $26/share in the Oliver Mining Co., for whom he was a lawyering.  When it became part of US Steel, he sold out at $6000/share.  He ended up with over a million dollars.  What else would you do with a million bucks at the turn of the century?  Yep, build a mansion.  The sad thing was he died in 1916, so he only enjoyed his wealth and his mansion for about 7 years.

Ahhh, but the rest of the story is what’s interesting.  Six of their seven children had died by the late1960s.  Their seventh and youngest daughter, Elizabeth, continued to live in the mansion.  Well, on June 26, 1977, at 83, she and her maid were murdered in the house, from what appeared to be a robbery.  But, they later arrested her adopted daughter’s second husband.  The motive, as usual, was money.  Her daughter stood to inherit the family fortune if Elizabeth died. 

The mansion is now owned and operated by the University of Minnesota and has been open for tours since about 1979.  Pretty much everything in there is original.  For more information search Glensheen Mansion.  Here are a few pictures.

This is the front of the mansion

The second is the backyard.

The Congdons had a stone foot bridge crossing the creek running through the property.  They also had a pretty flower garden and a vegetable garden, all attended to by a gardener who lived his whole life here.

Inside pictures were difficult, since the rooms were poorly lighted and the use of flash was prohibited.

This is the fireplace in the living room.

The library with portraits of Clara and Chester

Fireplace in the dining room

The Billiards Room.  Chester was an avid player of Billiards.

Not the coolest mansion we have toured, but still pretty interesting.

After a brief visit to the Tweed Art Gallery on the campus of the University of Minnesota we headed home.  It poured rain earlier this evening, but now appears to be clearing.  Hopefully tomorrow we can get back on track.