Pillsbury Mansion

I tried that three mile walk again today. Walking uses different muscles than bicycling and I am far from walking fit. It turned out to be a tiny bit hard. I am reminded that for exercise if it isn't at least a little bit hard it probably isn't much worth doing.

I hauled my camera along again today but on a grey day with not a single peek at the sun nothing leaped out screaming to be photographed.

So here is the first of some pictures I took on the way back from visiting the Kenwood Cyclery on Election Day.

If you have a map handy and are familiar with Minneapolis and can follow a straight line from 21st and Penn past this spot on 22nd and 1st Avenue South you can quickly deduce how I ended up in a sketchy neighborhood.

In the meantime, this is the Charles S. Pillsbury Mansion.Charles S. and John S. II were the twin sons of Charles A. Pillsbury, founder and namesake of the Pillsbury Company. The story is that Charles and John tossed a coin to decide who would inherit the family home, "The Highland House." Charles lost the bet, and built his own home across 22nd Street from the family home, which no longer exists. Charles built his new home in 1913 and 1914 at a cost of $300,000. It is occasionally referred to as the the house that flour built.

My architecture guide says, "The Tudor Revival-style house features a polygonal conservatory, bas-relief carvings, and a pair of stone lions who guard the entrance gate. Its sumptuous interiors were the work of antiques dealer Charles Duveen, known as "Charles of London", his talents apparently being so extraordinary that no one could mistake him for any other Charles in the English capitol. Duveen filled the house with old world treasures - leaded glass, firplace mantles, oak paneling, anf furniture - all extracted from historic English castles, churches and guildhalls."