If you have ever driven down Clifton Avenue and wondered what is behind those Georgian walls, you are exactly who a good mansion tour in Minneapolis is for. Minneapolis has more Gilded Age houses than most visitors realize, but only a handful will actually let you through the front door. Here is how to see two of the best, year-round, and why the holidays are an especially good time to go.
Which Gilded Age mansions can you tour in Minneapolis?
Two houses anchor our Gilded Age mansion tour. The first is 300 Clifton, the Eugene J. Carpenter Mansion in Loring Park. The second is the Charles S. Pillsbury Mansion at 100 East 22nd Street, home of the Pillsbury Club. Both were shaped by Edwin Hewitt’s architecture, yet they could hardly look more different, which we explored in why the Carpenter and Pillsbury mansions look so different.
What makes 300 Clifton the birthplace of the arts in Minneapolis?
300 Clifton is a Georgian-style mansion, remodelled in 1906 by architect Edwin H. Hewitt, with interiors by the celebrated Minneapolis designer John S. Bradstreet. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 and designated a Minneapolis landmark in 1978. Eugene J. Carpenter chaired the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts from 1911 to 1922, the organization that became the Minneapolis Institute of Art, which is why we call this house the birthplace of the arts in Minneapolis. We like to say it has some of the finest Georgian architecture in Minnesota, and you can judge for yourself in roughly 20,000 square feet of the estate.
It is also the only mansion in Minneapolis where you can tour the house and spend the night. Browse the history of the house, see the haunted stories guests love, or just book a stay and wander at your own pace.
What is the Pillsbury Mansion known for?
The Pillsbury Mansion is “the mansion flour built.” Charles S. Pillsbury commissioned it in 1912–14 from Hewitt and Brown, who designed it in the English Gothic Revival style and faced it in gray Bedford limestone. It is listed on the National Register and is a Minneapolis landmark. For records and background, the City of Minneapolis publishes its landmark information and the Minnesota Historical Society holds the wider story of the state’s milling fortunes. You can tour it year-round with Minneapolis Trolley Tours, which departs from its front door. Our Gilded Age mansion tour page lists the houses along the route.
Can you tour a Minneapolis mansion at Christmas?
Yes, and this is where the choices narrow. The American Swedish Institute’s Turnblad Mansion is a favorite of ours, but its own tours page notes that public tours are not available during the Holiday Exhibition (group tours are bookable separately). That makes the Carpenter and Pillsbury mansions the public mansion tours still running through the holidays, a point we cover in our guide to the two mansions that stay open at Christmas.
Better still, you can pair a tour with the Holiday Light Ride, a heated vintage trolley that boards at the Pillsbury Mansion, and then retire to a room in a Gilded Age house. We sketched that evening in our holiday lights date night guide.
Tips for an old house tour in Minneapolis
Wear comfortable shoes, because staircases and original floors are part of the charm. Ask about photography before you raise the camera. Ask about current tour times when you book, since schedules shift with the season, and bring curiosity: the best guides will tell you who slept where, which fireplace came from an English manor, and which room the ghosts prefer. For more ideas, see Meet Minneapolis at minneapolis.org.
Ready to see the mansions?
Book a stay at 300 Clifton, call us with questions, or reserve a seat on the Gilded Age mansion tour. Come see how Minneapolis’s flour, lumber and art fortunes built homes that are still standing.
Keep reading: Where Should You Stay for Vikings Home Games in Minneapolis? Nov. 29, Dec. 6 and the Dec. 20 Lions Night Game