Bill raises question of new owner for Glensheen
A bill in the Minnesota Legislature proposes transferring ownership of Duluth’s historic Glensheen Mansion from the University of Minnesota Duluth to the Minnesota Historical Society.
But sources on all sides of the issue say the bill is unlikely to go anywhere this legislative session, with the bill sponsor saying he introduced the legislation to start a conversation about the future of the lakeside attraction on Duluth’s east side.
“It was never really a high priority of mine — more of a bill to get people thinking about whether this is something that should be done,” Rep. Jim Knoblach of St. Cloud told the News Tribune.
Legislators this session are considering a $26 million bonding request to address deferred maintenance and critical structural renovations to the mansion. Last year, Glensheen saw more than 100,000 visitors, making it the most popular home tour in the state.
Knoblach told the News Tribune he took interest in the 108-year-old Chester Congdon estate during a capital investment tour with other legislators last summer. Several of the legislators, Knoblach said, asked why it wasn’t part of the state’s historical society, which owns the state’s next-busiest home tour, the Sibley Historic Site in Mendota Heights, where the state’s first governor once resided.
That prompted him to introduce the bill to transfer ownership, legislation first reported by MinnPost last week.
But the Minnesota Historical Society already is responsible for 31 sites — 26 of which are open to the public — and is loathe to add to those responsibilities.
“We can’t possibly do everything, run every historic site in the state,” said David Kelliher, MHS public policy director.
The university isn’t of a mind to transfer ownership, either.
“It’s not a bill the university pushed or embraces,” said David J. McMillan, vice chair of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents and executive vice president of Duluth-based Minnesota Power. “We really just want to make sure we’re taking care of an asset that’s in our custody and for which we’re responsible — before boathouses collapse and kitchen retaining walls and fireplaces fall down.”
McMillan’s condition assessment of Glensheen highlights some of the pressing work that brought lawmakers to the mansion last summer, when they toured the mansion and were shown its areas of need by Director Dan Hartman.
The mansion’s grounds underwent a $3.5 million restoration in the wake of the 2012 flood, but Hartman has been consolidating support for critical work to the mansion itself and to its boathouse — which is deteriorating in the face of Lake Superior’s lapping waters and crashing waves. The fear, said Hartman, is that one of the few remaining boathouses on Lake Superior “will be taken into the lake.”
Hartman said that while there are $26 million worth of repairs on the estate, he’d be pleased to come away with at least the first $8 million in this legislative session to fix the most critical needs — the boathouse, servants’ porch and formal garden.
The servants’ porch is connected to the mansion.
“If the porch is allowed to collapse, there are concerns it will collapse into the mansion and cause significant damage to the mansion itself,” he said.
Meanwhile, Glensheen’s three-tier formal garden is failing throughout, he said, adding that a heavy snowfall might cause the south wall to fall down entirely.
Additional funding would go toward many things — stucco repair throughout the estate, updating the estate’s electrical system, adding a second backup boiler, improving climate control (attic spaces have no heat) and repairing interior water damage from the 1980s.
The MHS, Kelliher said, partners with 87 county historical societies throughout the state, offering technical expertise and advice in the form of a field service staff and even small grants toward repairs from a roughly $1 million annual fund.
“We’re supportive of all those,” he said. “It’s important for state history and telling the story of our past.”
While saying MHS would be glad to be part of any conversation about Glensheen and its preservation, to aid the estate with the level of repairs it requires, much less take it over, is out of the question.
“To help out it would be financially impossible,” Kelliher said. “We’ve got our hands full at this point with the ones we operate.”
Last week, the News Tribune editorial page reported on concerns from some observers that state legislators might not be able to reach agreement this session on a bonding bill — intended for community improvement and public enhancement projects — that has become a legislative staple in even-numbered years.
“We can quibble around the edges about whether it’ll be a $700 million bonding bill or $1.4 (billion); do we settle on $900 million — whatever it is. But really, where we’re at right now is: Is there going to be a bonding bill at all? That’s the more serious question,” DFL Chairman Ken Martin said in an interview Tuesday with the News Tribune editorial board. “There’s nothing that requires a bonding bill to be passed this year. They could go without any investment or capital improvement bill. And that would be a real shame.”
Content to hold onto Glensheen during what is a time of growth and innovation — with a host of new tours and other event uses — McMillan sounded a message of hope.
“What it really needs is a little jump-start,” he said. “If we can get some fiscal resources moving is what we’d most like to see happen.”
Meanwhile, Knoblach stopped short of calling the bill dead.
“Nothing is ever dead around here until we adjourn,” he said, “but I have not been actively pushing it.”
By Brady Slater
duluthnewstribune.com
