Glensheen mansion makes stunning holiday transformation

By Derek James

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    DULUTH, Minnesota (WCCO) — Minnesota is home to one of USA Today’s Best Holiday Historic Home Tours in the country, and it’s just a short drive from the Twin Cities.

Along the shore of Lake Superior, with terrific views of bulk carriers in the harbor, there is a crown jewel of architecture and history: Glensheen, the historic home of Chester and Clare Congdon in Duluth.

Glensheen director Dustin Heckman is our tour guide, first bringing us into the stables before the carriage room, which now serves as a gift shop.

The 20,000-square-foot mansion is next, where there is a new holiday decorating theme across 12 of the 39 rooms.

“‘Classic Christmas Tales’ is meant to pull together different storybooks people maybe know from Christmas stories or winter stories, and put those into theme rooms,” Heckman said.

In the living room sits one of 25 decorated trees, this one with a “Twelve Days of Christmas” theme.

The library, complete with a fireplace and a spot to read overlooking Lake Superior, is also home to the family’s most personal decorations.

“This tree has all the original ornaments from the Congdon family here, so you actually get to see how they decorated their tree,” Heckman said.

A trip upstairs brings us to the family bedrooms.

“So this room, the master bedroom, features original nativity scenes that Clara actually collected,” he said.

Heckman says some of the holiday traditions at Glensheen continued with the Congdon family at their other mansion, Westhome, in Washington State.

“There was kind of an order when it came to getting your presents,” he said. “You would line up in the hallway, oldest to youngest, and one at a time come in to Chester and Clara to receive your gift.”

Back downstairs, the Congdon family would gather for a traditional Christmas turkey dinner. For something sweet, there’s a shortbread recipe of note.

“Everyone loves to get Clare’s shortbread recipe, so this year what we’ve done is we’ve put it on one of the storyboards here so you can get that recipe yourself,” he said.

There are also 25 elves hidden around Glensheen and a prize for kids who find all of them. It’s a new tradition among the classic stories of Christmas, and a peek at how one affluent family celebrated the season at the turn of the century.

“We talk about the Congdon family traditions, but this is a tradition for other people no matter where they’re from that they have to go to Glensheen at Christmastime,” he said. “That is what we enjoy is just making that experience for people and becoming part of their holiday traditions.”

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