Glensheen Mansion tour guides used to steer guests clear of a servants' quarters porch and courtyard.
The brick walls of the arched porch had splayed over time, and its structural steel supports were 70 percent deformed in places, said Dan Hartman, director of the 110-year-old lakefront mansion on Duluth's London Road.
The porch appeared to be on the verge of collapse.
"It could have happened at any time or during any given snowfall or rain event," Hartman said.
But, $500,000 later, the walls stand true, and a small courtyard previously off-limits is now open to visitors.
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As he showed off the improved structure Tuesday, Hartman said: "This was a sketchy part of the property where we didn't take visitors. But, look at it now."
Eventually, Hartman aims to install a clothesline and an electrically-heated doghouse to the servants' courtyard area, to replicate its original setup.
Hartman said public interest in the lives of servants to the wealthy was piqued in recent years by by the popularity of the PBS series, "Downton Abbey," prompting Glensheen to develop tours delving into that dimension of the former Congdon family estate.
"There's more to Glensheen than just the Congdon side of the story," he said.
Hartman also noted the servants' entrance located below the brick porch was about all most people once could have hoped to see of the mansion, as this was where mail, groceries and other supplies were delivered.
"For a lot of Duluthians, this would have been their only point of contact. They didn't get to go to the front door," he said.
The porch restoration, completed a couple weeks ago, is just the latest of several ambitious projects Glensheen is tackling.
Much more work is still to come, as the mansion-turned-museum recently received authorization to use up to $4 million in state bonding funds to shore up the estate. Hartman notes that Glensheen will be able to tap all those funds only if it matches them dollar for dollar.
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Hartman and team will need to mount an aggressive fundraising campaign to reach that goal. But if it's up to the challenge, Glensheen will have $8 million in working capital available to alleviate the effects of prolonged and considerable deferred maintenance.
It will take time to come up with the needed funds, but Hartman said the porch repairs could not wait.
He said the University of Minnesota, which owns Glensheen, stepped up on its own to cover the cost of the brick porch, recognizing the need to act swiftly or risk losing a valuable portion of the historic structure for good.
As additional funds become available, Hartman expects the coming four or so years to be quite busy. During that period, he hopes to see the mansion's formal terraced gardens restored and its unique wave-battered boathouse reclaimed.
Some of the other investments to be made will be less visible to visitors, but Hartman considers it critical to upgrade the mansion's outdated heating, plumbing and electrical systems.
With each project, Hartman said contractors and staff make new discoveries.
For instance, as the porch was being restored, masons found the mansion's original paving stones outside the servants' quarters remained intact, although they had long ago been buried under bituminous.
Further investigation revealed other areas where original paving stones could be exposed and reclaimed.
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Gardeners Zack Vieau and Ryan Tolkinen were hard at work Tuesday morning, busting up asphalt and removing it to reveal original pavers that were laid outside the mansion's carriage house more than a century ago.
Tolkinen said he initially thought they'd find the pavers only at the carriage house's threshold, but they extended considerably further into the grounds.
"It's cool to be the first people to see something that nobody's seen in a long time," Vieau said.
Jane Pederson, Glensheen's marketing manager, said staff are always looking to reveal new dimensions of the mansion and freshen tours for repeat guests.
"A lot of our visitors are first-time guests. But we need to convince them there are good reasons to come back. Our goal is to continually make this old house new," she said.
