Grounds Tour Preview

The gardener's cottage was built as the home for the head gardener. This house was initially a simple brick house and was later remodeled to be enlarged for the Wyness family in 1927. From there, this added the stucco and half-timbering to match the carriage house's Tudor look.

The vegetable garden was used to help feed everyone on the estate throughout the year. The original gardening staff varied from three to nine people. The gardener planted a wide assortment of vegetables and fruits. The garden beds are laid out as they originally were.

The main level sheltered the family’s cows and horses. The stalls were equipped with cork tiles to protect their hooves, automatic watering devices, and covered manure troughs. The manure was then mixed with creek water and used as fertilizer for the gardens.

This building also housed a full-service automobile garage with a gas pump and a mechanic's pit. This was forward-thinking, given that Glensheen was built during the very beginning of the automobile era. Carriages and sleighs were stored upstairs and transported between floors via a lift.

On the second floor were apartments for the chauffeur, coachman, and stableman.

When built, its pier was large enough to be seen on navigational maps. The pier was bigger then, extending out an additional 30 feet straight into Lake Superior with an “L” shaped arm that jutted out 65 feet to the right.

This configuration created safe waters for the Congdons’ guests arriving by boat. It also sheltered the Congdon's own yacht, Hesperia, until the vessel was destroyed in a 1916 fire. Without Hesperia, the boathouse served as a storage for rowboats. The rooftop patio was used for relaxing or entertaining.

Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes. With a surface area of nearly 32,000 miles and a deepest point of 1,332 feet, Lake Superior could hold all the water in Lakes Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Erie, plus three additional Lake Eries. That’s approximately 3-quadrillion gallons of fresh water.

Lake Superior serves to connect the heartland to the global economy via the St. Lawrence Seaway. This navigable channel flows from Duluth to the Atlantic via Québec through a series of 15 locks. Opened in 1959, vessels following “Highway H2O” typically navigate the 2,038 nautical miles at about 10.4 knots (12 mph) in about 8.5 days.

The Duluth-Superior port ships over 32-million tons of cargo a year, primarily ore, coal and grain.

Tischer Creek, and the revine it sits in, it the source for the name "Glensheen." The "glen" is the narrow valley that follows the creek, and "sheen" refers to the shining off of the water. The creek was first recorded in 1848 with having the Ojibwe name “Kinechigakwag Creek.” Translation for the name is at this time unknown and has stumped modern speakers of the Ojibwe language (Anishinaabemowin). "Tischer" is named after the Tischer family who were the first white settlers to homestead this location in the later 1850s.

This bridge was a part of a trail system along the creek that connected the estate upstream to Congdon Park. Chester Congdon donated the picturesque 34 acres of park and its hanging waterfalls and red rock gorges to the city in 1908.

The Congdons hired renowned New York City landscape architect Charles Leavitt Jr. to create a gracious formal estate, while preserving the natural beauty of the property.

The estate has both wilder areas to play homage to the rocky and wooded beauty of the shoreline, as well as more manicured spaces like the formal garden.

The fountain in the reflecting pool is the third one installed in the garden. It was sculpted in 1913 by George Thrana, a Duluthian who also carved the façade of the original Central High School in the city’s downtown. This fountain was carved from from white marble, which was delivered to the estate by horse-drawn wagon.

This gated courtyard was reserved for the Congdons’ servants. It functioned as break space, a spot to hang laundry and the entrance point for deliveries, such as milk, ice and groceries.

The Congdons’ guests would have entered via London road through the magnificent west gate. Drivers would follow the serpentine brick wall allowing passengers to take in the Tischer Creek glen and then the front of the mansion with its strikingly shaped gables.

Upon reaching the front door, guests were greeted by the butler. The chauffeur would continue down the pathway to take the carraige or car to the carriage house.

Bent Brook is one of the two creeks at Glensheen. During spring runoff or heavy rains, water flow can be wild, threatening to erode the landscape. To keep the brook from meandering, the waterway was lined with stones and cemented during the estate’s construction. Near this spot are steps where one could dip their toes into the creek.

By the early 1900s, the game of tennis was a bona-fide sport. Its popularity at the Olympic Games made it the darling of the country club set and so the Congdon estate required a court.

Just above the tennis area is the bowling green. Lawn bowling, a game akin to bocce, was a relatively new pastime at the time of Glensheen’s construction.

The greenhouses were formerly existed at Glensheen until 1971. These buildings allowed the Congdons to enjoy homegrown exotic fruits and flowers. Their indoor harvest included fruit from full-sized banana trees, as well as orchids, Easter lilies and poinsettia plants.

There were four rooms within the greenhouses: the palm house, the rose house, the carnation house, and a general house. The latter was used to start more than 6,000 seedlings for vegetable and flowering annuals.

Heating this large glass space required 65 tons of coal annually, rivaling the resource needs of the mansion itself. In 1971, due to rising expenses, the greenhouse complex was torn down.