Recent visit this week at Glensheen. I have toured the manison several 5 times over the last twenty years.
Seldom do I think of the murder since my first time there. The manison is lovely and each time exciting to revisit. I have toured the third floor and attic one time.
This week we spend hours on the grounds enjoying the Lake view, the flower beds, and the vegetable gardens, and carriage house. it is neat because more details have been added over the years, photos, clothing, carriages.
Fans help circulate the air compared to twenty years ago in the bedrooms on a hot day.
This last time I stepped over the stone bridge and followed the path to the cemetry, which dates back long before the Condgon’s built Gleensheen. I thought the cememtry was their family, but there are other names. I didnt see Condgon on any stones. ? I did read the post above about someone visits the cemetery each May–
The tour was over so I never asked questions=

So people are writing about ghosts at Gleensheen, so besides the Congdon’s and the nurse– there is a cemetry yards away?
Does anyone know about the the cemetery and are the Condgon buried there or where?

I must go back and read all the postings!

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Most recently, the tour staff has been given leave to talk about the event if they wish to. Some do, but leave out details, such as where the event took place. Others choose not to talk about the event out of respect for the Congdons, but may relay basic details if asked. There are some guides who may even deliberately skew the facts. I was told that the event happened in one room, when it actually happened in another. In my experience, it’s easy to say that the event doesn’t matter until you’re actually in the house and realize that a loving family once lived here.

i like candy and i have a dresser… what a quincadence…

Yes, we are allowed to mention the crime. In fact, there are three books about the crime for sale in the museum shop, so it wouldn’t make sense not to be able to talk about it. Depending on the tour, I do or I don’t. Some people don’t want to hear about it. Most people want to know as much as possible, but the tour is about the house, not the crime.

I don’t know of any guides who deliberately misstate the facts. They may just not know for some reason.

Regarding the cemetery right next to the property–that is a very old Scandinavian cemetery. The Congdons are buried elsewhere.

Maybe I’ll see some of you tomorrow on my tours!

As I’ve been thinking about it, I don’t think it was a tour guide who misstated – I think it was the friend I went on my first tour with :-> That was several years ago, before the guides were able to talk about it. I think it would be interesting to spend a week living there, to get a feel for the place and maybe what it was like when the family first moved in. I’d have to build that Way-Back machine first, though, of course.
To the Glensheen employees answering our notes, thanks for your information, and for your devotion to this wonderful piece of Minnesota history.

The staff is now allowed to talk about the murders. I believe the family member who forbid it has died.

VGS,
Thank you for that insight! When I am there, I really feel like I have stepped back in time. It seems pretty easy to imagine it with all of the furnishings the way they were. Thank you for volunteering there. It makes the place even more special to have people who really appreciate it working there.
Thank you again!

I just went to the Glenshenn Mansion just a day ago, and what i saw and heard was a little eerie and freaked me out.
Me and my mom where walking through the room where Elizabeth Congdon was brutely murdered,alonge with her maid. We herd what sounded like it was raining outside, but that was inposible, it was bright and sun-shinny outside, and we aere only on the second floor, and we stood in there for a couple more minutes and it got louder, then we both thought it sounded like an old record player, well, there was one right infront of us, not playing and had a sign that said, “Please Don’t Touch. Thank You.” Then it sounded like the music was accually playing, with words and everything, then it just stopped.
My mom and I went and asked the tour guide if they played song the family might have listened to over an intercom, or if the record players get played often or ever.
“No, they do not play them at all, they never had, just for preservation rules, but in that room we have gotten reports of people seeing a lot of phenominal action happen by the record player, for that was Elizabeth’s favorite thing to play, she loved the records.”
For the rest of the tour I felt like I was being watched by something I cant explain. It was bone chilling. Then at the end of the tour I told the guide that I herd the record player, but not just me, it me and my mother.
She said that happens often and that sometimes the sould jut wants to communicate with people, or just to get a rise of scare in there face.
Even if it did creep me out, I would deffidantly Volounteer there, I would absolutly love it! I love it there so much! And I think it would be a wonderfull experience to do so.

xoxo
Mary.

3 summers ago I went to the mansion with my parents and we went on a tour. We went to every room except the basement and the attic, they say that the attic is where most of the presence from the ghosts is the strongest. They also say that if you want to go up to the attic you have to take your shoes off.

I think some of you are confusing Glensheen with another place. Shoes are completely allowed in the attic (in fact, you can’t take your shoes off anywhere in the house!), and the attic is NOT the place where most people have seen “activity.” I am not going to mention the areas where people think they’ve sensed things, but it’s definitely not the attic.

As for that whole record player incident…that’s very interesting considering there is no record player in Elizabeth’s room. ALSO, Elisabeth and her maid were not murdered together, nor were they even in the same room. And, you can’t even “walk through” that room. You walk into it briefly and then walk right out, but you are not near any furniture, let alone a record player (all musical items are in the basement, two floors down).

SO, as fun as these rumors are, that’s what they are….rumors. If they make people want to visit Glensheen, well–that’s good for business but they might be disappointed.

My husband and I went on the complete tour. I went to see the mansion and hear about it’s history. I already know all I want to know about the murders. If the mansion is in fact haunted with spirits, I think that’s sad. They should all be up in heaven with God. Those who went on the tour and can only find the murders and hauntings the only thing interesting, perhaps you should go on the tour again and see what is really worth seeing and hearing about at this beautiful place. I’ll bet some spent so much time thinking about the murder and potential haunting that they don’t even realize that the woodworking in the rooms was designed/carved to match the furniture in the room. Did you think at all about the fact that they basically had their own private hospital within this home? Imagine the wealth it takes to accomplish that! There are many interesting historical things worth hearing about and remembering on this tour. Anyone who considers the history boring probably finds themselves bored in school as well. That’s sad. I hope you realize the value of learning one day.

Laurie

Hello all. I have been reading what many of you have been writing and I like it. I have lived in a small town just 20 miles south of Duluth for my entire life and have been to the mansion at least a dozen or more times (although I have been in the building less). There is definitely a presence there, what it is I can’t say. I would like to say to those nay sayers that although some people may be lying, why would they want to? They can gain nothing from it except being discovered and then ridiculed. Personally I believe them and feel that those who are the disillusioned ones are the people who deny what others clamed happened. Since if we all fallowed their logic winning the lottery is impossible, since they are making decisions based on the more common occurrence of having something not happen to them. Any way sorry about the rant there, and back to the story, I was there earlier this year for a local art show they have on the grounds each year. I had known there was a way to get to a cemetery that is next door to the mansion grounds from the grounds. While I was making my way over a bridge that leads over a small river to the left of the mansion (if you are looking at it from the lake shore) I met a worker there who asked me if I had seen the cemetery. I told her that I was heading there. She then regaled me with a short history of the cemetery. It was built before the mansion was, and was the site of a mass unmarked burial of victims of some sort of disease epidemic. Hello all. I have been reading what many of you have been writing and I like it. I have lived in a small town just 20 miles south of Duluth for my entire life and have been to the mansion at least a dozen or more times (although I have been in the building less). There is definitely a presence there, what it is I can’t say. I would like to say to those nay sayers that although some people may be lying, why would they want to? They can gain nothing from it except being discovered and then ridiculed. Personally I believe them and feel that those who are the disillusioned ones are the people who deny what others clamed happened. Since if we all fallowed their logic winning the lottery is impossible, since they are making decisions based on the more common occurrence of having something not happen to them. Any way sorry about the rant there, and back to the story, I was there earlier this year for a local art show they have on the grounds each year. I had known there was a way to get to a cemetery that is next door to the mansion grounds from the grounds. While I was making my way over a bridge that leads over a small river to the left of the mansion (if you are looking at it from the lake shore) I met a worker there who asked me if I had seen the cemetery. I told her that I was heading there. She then regaled me with a short history of the cemetery. It was built before the mansion was, and was the site of a mass unmarked burial of victims of some sort of disease epidemic. Since then many bones from that burial have been washing up on the shore of lake Superior, right in front of Glensheen. Past grounds keepers have even kept many of the bones in drawers in their quarters. I can’t say I have ever actually seen anything there but I can say I have sensed a presence in both the cemetery and the mansion. Both are different the one in the cemetery is more eerie. Also just another ***** site I saw there was that when you first go up to the second floor, there are two statues flanking the door that is almost right in front of you. The statues are of Dante and Virgil the writer of Dante’s Inferno and the poet who supposedly led Dante through Hell in the Poem. So just some creepy tidbits and odd bits of history for you people to chew on.

I toured Glensheen on August 5th of this summer. I read about the murders before the tour. I am open to the idea of ghost and spirits, though while I was there I did not feel anything eerie or like I was being watched. The quide said they are allowed to talk about the murders but to ask them question about the murder after the tour. They can talk about it, its just not a focus of the tour. House is very beautiful and I would recommend the tour to anyone in the area. Also, it was Elizabeth’s adopted daughters husband that killed her and her nurse. He broke I threw a window by the billards table. The nurse was killed on the stairs and her body was layed on the bench under the window. Elizabeth was killed in her bedroom (at the top of the stairs first room on the right) with a pink pillow. That is just what I got from the book I read. Tragic murders over money but a very beautiful house!

Does anyone know what ever happend to a tour guide named Jon Boyer? I met him there years ago and I am trying to find him!
Thx!

I don’t remember that name, but call Glensheen. Someone might know him! 1- 888-454-GLEN

I don’t remember that name, but call Glensheen. Someone might know him! Glensheen’s toll-free number is 1-888-454-GLEN

hey guys, great website. All of you who are interested in reading more about the paranormal, check out our site at Paranormalknowledge.com

I’m very interested reading all of these postings!! Me and my girlfriend are coming to Duluth this weekend to celebrate my 25th birthday. Glensheen is one of the places she wants to take me, hopefully, vgs, you’ll be there, you seem very knowledgable! can’t wait!!!

I was recently visiting the Glensheen Mansion where I underwent an incredible experience. I was standing in the room where Elizabeth was supposedly murdered by myself, when a ghost suddenly appeared about 10-15 feet in front of me. At first, I was extremely scared and began yelling. However, the ghost assured me that everything was okay and was just looking for a friend. So I hung out with the ghost for the night, and we went out to eat at Applebee’s. We then flew back to the mansion where we played board games and told scary stories all night. Great experience, recommend Glensheen to anyone.

Wow, Jake. What ghost would eat at Applebee’s? I think he or she would prefer Blackwoods.