Glensheen Mansion

Visitors and staff at Glensheen describe cold spots on the stairs, flashes of light from the staircase, shadow figures, flickering lights, a white mist in the library, sudden lightheadedness, figures in the basement and figures watching from windows, including Elisabeth Congdon's; some say they have heard her crying or seen her wandering the halls, and they link the activity to the victims of the 1977 murders. Elisabeth Congdon, who was 83, and her night nurse Velma Pietila were killed in the mansion that year, a crime that drew national attention. Glensheen is a 22-acre lakeshore estate on Lake Superior built between 1905 and 1908 for the Duluth mining and lumber magnate Chester Congdon and his family, and it is now a historic house museum. The estate offers seasonal evening tours that explore its history, including the 1977 case, and those events are best approached with respect for the people who died.