Congdon, Chester and Clara, Estate - Duluth, MN
Posted by: 
lenron
N 46° 48.913 W 092° 03.107
15T E 572336 N 5185066
Chester and Clara Congdon estate, called Glensheen, on the shore of Lake Superior in Duluth, MN>
Waymark Code: WM8E4R
Location: Minnesota, United States
Date Posted: 03/20/2010
Views: 7
Glensheen estate was built between 1905 and 1908 for attorney Chester Adgate Congdon, his wife Clara Bannister Congdon and their children. The original 22 acre-plot featured rugged terrain with a stream that cut through dense woods to an underdeveloped, yet gently sloping shoreline. The Congdons recognized the promising beauty of the Lake Superior property, and measurements for a formal estate began as early as 1903.
Chester Congdon met Clara Bannister at Syracuse University where they were both members of the first graduating class. After a seven-year engagement, Chester, who was practicing law in St. Paul, Minnesota, married Clara and they established a family which would eventually grow to include four boys and three girls.
Chester moved the family to Duluth at a time when mining turned men into millionaires. Through astute observation during his tenure as a lawyer to Henry Oliver, Chester learned the mining business, and made his fortune through land speculation and mining in northern Minnesota and Arizona. He also owned apple orchards in Yakima, Washington, where Chester built another impressive house called Westhome.
Today, Glensheen closely resembles the way it looked when the Congdon family moved in on November 24, 1908. The majority of the furnishings are original to the time the estate was first occupied, and in 1991, the home was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
(Information from (
visit link)