My 12 year Love Affair with Glensheen

Ellie Gerst
Aug 28, 2017 · 3 min read

12 years ago, I visited Glensheen for the first time.

My mom still talks about it today. Slack-jawed, eyes glimmering with wonder, awestruck questions bubbling up every two minutes . . .

I was entranced.

As a nine-year-old girl who never stopped reading and carried a notebook around everywhere to write stories in, it felt like I had just stepped into one of my own fairytales.

Walking from room to room, ogling every detail of the mansion’s impeccable design, I was hanging on our tour guide’s words as she recounted stories of the Congdons, eager to imagine life on the estate.

The bubbling fountain, grassy lawn and tremendous blue lake in Glensheen’s back yard were all whimsical elements of the grounds that captured my nine-year-old brain and hasn’t released it since.

After our tour, I dragged my family into a bookstore to purchase a book on Glensheen. I finished it in two days and scribbled a note inside the front cover, Chester style, about how much I loved our trip. We tried to find the book recently, but it must have been lost or borrowed in the years since.

My little brothers and me outside Glensheen in 2005

Returning to Glensheen as an adult, the sheer artistry that gave it its beauty is still undimmed and the charismatic antiquity that enamored me as a child still has me firmly in its grasp.

As I’m writing this blog, I just got off the phone with my mom who was all too happy to reminisce with me.

“It’s so appropriate that you’re ‘Intern Ellie’ now,” Mom said. “You fell in love with Glensheen the very first time we visited, and every year that we went back to Duluth you wanted to go back to Glensheen.”

This picture was taken one of the following years, when we were sailing on Lake Superior. My mom recalled that I had caught a glimpse of Glensheen and ran to the front of the boat to look at it. I was totally smitten with this charming old estate.

Now, the picture of my little brothers and me standing on Glensheen’s back lawn is still proudly displayed in my parents’ house.

It’s a bittersweet feeling, as my internship comes to an end. Though Glensheen has always strived to preserve the history, it simultaneously feels like a place of growth and progression. Glensheen continues to invest in our surrounding community through technology and incredible on-site events. The passion for engagement here makes you feel less like you’re steeped in the past and more like you’re connecting with the very people behind history’s stories.

Being Glensheen’s intern has been one of the best commitments I’ve ever made, and I can leave knowing that I’ve made my nine-year-old self proud.

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