Glensheen

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Sunday, July 20, 2025

We went on a 40th anniversary activity with our friends Christina, Benjamin, and William. They live 2/3rds of the way to Duluth, so they thought it would be fun to go to Glensheen mansion together. And it was!

We went first to the Little Mermaid restaurant in their town of Askov. The restaurant is in what was once-upon-a-time the cafeteria/gym of the old elementary school. It was bright and sunny because there were windows all around the ceiling. Since it used to be a gym, it was a big place. There were lots of tables and booths. There were three parties of 10-12, gathered for Sunday breakfast. It just made me happy to see the big groups – one all in their 60s, one definitely a multigenerational family, and another three families with medium sized kids. How great that there is room for that togetherness in this small town. We had a delicious breakfast, then drove the 4 minutes across town top Christina’s house. Keith commented that he knew more than 1% of the 331 people population. Russ was home but headed for a nap after working double shifts the last two days. Ooof. So many coworkers want off in the summer and someone has to work.

Explains the name
Old toys and old pictures of all the area communities decorated the place. There is also a museum of localness located in the building.

We took county roads to Duluth, an hour away. It was just gorgeous. Hills and trees and beautiful. At one point the car totally surprised me by saying, “Welcome to WisconsinW. I would have thought we had gotten lost, but we were following Christina. We went about 20 feet to a bridge, crossed the St. Louis river, and the car said, “Welcome to Minnesota”. That has to be the briefest time you can visit a state.

We bought an annual pass to visit the mansion again in a different season. I am planning to find non weathery days in December to come up to see the Christmas decorations. It is a great house, filled with all original Congdon family furnishings. I think that is what really makes it special – it is just like when the family lived there. Even though it is very large, it really does feel like it would have been a nice place to live. We did a self guided tour, so we did not hear about Elizabeth being murdered (by a relative?) in 1977. Next time, we will take a guided tour and see what is up with that.

Uranium tinted dishes. I can NOT imagine how cool people thought that was. I would still think it was cool, but then I would run away. (Have you read Radium Girls? You should.)
My favorite room
I would like to watch someone use this
From the lakeside
The gardener made almost twice as much as the cook. Christina pointed out he was a man.

The boys were willing to brave the rocky beach out in front of the house. Shoes off lured them in to the edge, then on to some rocks, then on to sitting in the choppy water. Christina and I enjoyed watching them from a bench.

Not wet yet

It is National Ice Cream day, so we partook of a frozen treat.

They are sitting in chairs made of milk jugs. A local company was one of the first to make stuff out of milk jugs.

We walked the grounds and the boys played their first tennis in the garden. When one ball flew far and away, we put everything else away and went on a hunt. We were ALL very interested in finding the ball – I SO wanted to be the one to yell, Here it is!, but alas, it was not to be. Christina suggested we come again just before the first snowfall and maybe we will be able to see it. A grand idea!

They headed home, with a stop at Target (it is the nearest one to their house). We went to Canal Park to walk around. We had packed a bag in case we decided to stay over. We enjoyed some fun shops,

the moose store, apparently,
I am so bad at flags!! A lady asked if we could help her identify the Finnish flag. No. The answer was no, until Keith looked at the labels.

watched the lift bridge go up and down,

walked down the promenade by the canal,

and had dinner at the oft heard-of Grandma’s restaurant. Grandma’s marathon is named after…Grandma? the restaurant? I don’t know…but it is a big deal in these here parts.

Grandma’s has lots of rooms and lots of stuff.

What a fun day doing something we would never have thought of doing! Thank you, Christina, Benjamin, and William!!!

4 thoughts on “Glensheen”

  1. Kristine Daly

    Ah brings back lots of memories growing up in Duluth. I haven’t been back in many years. I should go be a tourist. You need to ask my sister Julie about her ride on the lift bridge!

  2. Julie Bakken-Johnson

    I was just up there exploring with Tim Julie and grands! We always get coffee at 190 degrees and lunch At Sara’s table and walk the waterfront lift bridge and beaches. It was a lovely day. I’ll bring you if you come this fall Kristine!

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