Morell & Nichols

When Chester and Clara Congdon hired renowned landscape architect Charles W. Leavitt, Jr. to design the grounds of Glensheen, Leavitt sent two of his best men to make sure his plans were followed to the letter: Anthony U. Morell and Arthur R. Nichols. While in Duluth the pair made significant connections, and by the time…

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January 23, 1970: Death of renowned local and state landscape architect Arthur Nichols

On this day in 1970, pioneer landscape architect Arthur Nichols—whose work can be seen today throughout Duluth—died in Minneapolis. Arthur Richardson Nichols was a native of Springfield, Massachusetts, and became the first person to earn a degree through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s landscape architecture program in 1902. He and Anthony Morell went to work…

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December 13, 1920: City announces plans for Congdon Boulevard

On this day in Duluth in 1920, the city announced plans for the construction of Congdon Boulevard from 60th Avenue East to Stoney Point along the Lake Superior Shoreline. The road would cost the city $397,600 and construction would include a bridge over the Lester River, connecting the new boulevard to London Road. The road,…

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July 3, 1912: Opening of Snively Road, aka Seven Bridges Road

On this day in Duluth in 1912, Snively Road—later renamed Seven Bridges Road—officially opened as a Duluth roadway. The city announced that “while no formalities are to be observed today in connection with the opening to traffic the public is urged by members of the park board to drive over the road and enjoy its…

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Archive Dive: Congdon Park

Summer is an especially buy time for Glensheen, the historic Duluth state along Tischer Creek and the Lake Superior Shore built by Chester and Clara Congdon between 1905 and 1909. One of the often overlooked stories of Glensheen is why Chester Congdon purchased and donated land along the creek above his estate to the city…

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Morgan Park

After corporate financier John Pierpont Morgan organized United States Steel in 1901, Minnesota legislators began promoting the idea of luring a major steel plant to the state, a topic fiercely debated during the 1907 session. Lawmakers proposed a two-part bill designed to force the creation of a plant: first, a tonnage tax would be added…

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The Congdon House, aka Glensheen

3300 London Road | Architect: Clarence Johnston | b. 1905–1909 | Extant IIn late July 1901, Clara Hesperia Bannister Congdon was dreaming about a new home. Clara’s diary entry for July 28, 1903, reads “Chester and I went to Tischer’s Creek to measure the place for a home” and days later she began a list…

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Duluth’s Park System, 1856 – 1956

Rock, water, and ice: These forces of nature inspired Duluth’s park system. Eleven thousand years ago a massive layer of glacial ice melted away slowly as the climate warmed. Meltwater collected in the huge basin we now call Lake Superior. Much deeper than today, the shoreline of this lake stood at an elevation of about…

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Duluth’s 19th-Century Squares

When the first settlers in the 1850s platted the townsitess that later joined to become Duluth, they set aside land for public squares—open spaces in the heart of the townsite that could be used for community gatherings. This pattern of development soon fell out of favor as the work of Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of…

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Skyline Parkway & Seven Bridges Road

Visitors to Duluth in the summer of 1890 may have expected to find a rough frontier settlement surrounded by wilderness. Instead, they discovered a beautiful modern city with over 30,000 residents and a busy harbor filled with cargo ships. Tourists could dine in the elegant Palm Room of the magnificent seven-story brick and brownstone Spalding…

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Congdon Park

Duluth’s Chester Congdon is best known as the man who built Glensheen, the elegant Jacobean manor house and estate perched along the shore of Lake Superior at 3300 London Road. Congdon, an attorney by trade, made his fortune after becoming chief counsel for the Oliver Mining Company in 1892. When the company was bought out…

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Kitchi Gammi Park & Congdon Boulevard

Duluth’s Chester Congdon is best known as the man who built Glensheen, the elegant Jacobean manor house and estate perched along the shore of Lake Superior at 3300 London Road. Congdon, an attorney by trade, made his fortune after becoming chief counsel for the Oliver Mining Company in 1892. When the company was bought out…

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Enger Park & Twin Ponds

Located atop one of the highest points in Duluth, Enger Park was envisioned long before it received the name it bears today. Thirty acres of this rocky hillside below Skyline Parkway, which the Duluth Board of Park Commissioners named Central Park, was set aside as one of the city’s first parks. As early as 1890,…

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Chester A. Congdon

Perhaps best known as the man who built Duluth’s historic Glensheen estate, Chester A. Congdon also contributed generously to the development of Duluth’s park system with the creation of Congdon Park and Congdon Boulevard. Moreover, Glensheen’s construction introduced Minnesota to Anthony U. Morell and Arthur R. Nichols, who would go on to become the state’s…

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F. Rodney Paine

On the first day of 1926, thirty-seven-year-old F. Rodney Paine stepped into the role of superintendent of the Duluth Park Department. An appreciation for parks had surrounded Paine since his youth. He was born in Duluth on June 17, 1889, the year the city’s first Board of Park Commissioners was created. His father, Frederick William…

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People & Biography

Pioneers Frederick A. Buckingham Michael & Emily Chambers Jerome Cooley Marcus B. Cullum Joshua B. Culver Charles d’Autremont Nicholas & Benjamin Decker Edmund F. Ely Josiah D. Ensign Melvin Forbes John D. Howard Trevanion Hugo Nehemiah Hulett John C. Hunter Family Ernest & Robert Jefferson Charles F. Johnson Freeman Keen George and John Lavaque Lars…

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