The People Provenance, A Historic Home’s Raison D’être

Provenance: A place of origin or earliest known history of something.

As you wend your way to Carlton down the curvy Minnesota Highway 210 from Gary-New Duluth and across the St. Louis River overpass just below Thompson Reservoir, you might not notice on your left the historic home veiled by groomed cedar trees. Turn in at the brick gateposts and left where the property opens up beautifully, like a hidden world within a clamshell.

The 21⁄2-story, hipped-roof brick home has a wraparound porch, partially enclosed on the east. Latticework, fluted Roman Doric pillars, pedestals, dormers and other embellishments give the house its distinctive feel, though the wooded setting certainly contributes.

The surrounding grounds stimulate the eye and imagination. Rock outcroppings stretch east to west like fingers of basalt. The lush lawn scrolls into the open spaces between these fingers like a custom-tailored green carpet. A unique feature, one of many, is the grand piano that sits atop one of these fingers near the back of the 6-acre expanse.

If you gaze directly east past the house you’ll see, nestled between two stone outcroppings, an intimate outdoor chamber-like area with the pond known as “Morning Glory Pool” as its central element. A fountain bubbles in the center of this 32-foot diameter pool. Surrounding the pool, the patio and gardens create a strong sense that this space had been designed for entertaining.

Oldenburg House, built in 1894 in a Classical Revival style, was entered onto the National Register of Historic Places in December 2006, in large part because of the man who had it built, Henry Oldenburg. His qualities guided the notable roles he – and his home – played in local history. Both became community pillars; both were welcoming influences.

That welcoming provenance resonates with the home’s current owners, Glenn and Emily Swanson, who in 2017 opened Oldenburg House as a B&B inn, a community meeting place, a wedding venue and, on select weekends each month, an upscale jazz club with fine dining. Their vision for the property goes back to those early roots.

“We’re just trying to do what the house wants,” Emily says. “We’re carrying on the Oldenburg family tradition of hospitality, conservation and civic engagement.”

With the help of scores of neighbors, friends and family, Oldenburg House is becoming a lively Northland destination, inspired by Glenn and Emily’s commitment to spark community vitality through cultural exchanges and warm hospitality.

“Mr. Oldenburg was actually quite a remarkable man,” Glenn likes to point out, which makes a good transition to the backstory on how this place came to be.

The town of Carlton began as a collection of temporary shacks built in 1870 to house workers who had come to finish a railroad connecting St. Paul and Duluth and evolved into today’s small community on the edge of exquisite landscapes, forest, whitewater wonders and an idyllic state park.

Henry Oldenburg came to this area as an attorney for the logging industry, but brought a different approach. In the 19th century, logging began depleting timber resources from Maine to Michigan. Aware of this deforestation, Henry became an early proponent of conservation, writing his first paper on the subject in 1876.

After obtaining his law degree in Madison, Henry moved to Minnesota in 1884 to represent the Weyerhaeuser lumber companies. A charismatic orator, he served as county attorney and in the state legislature, where he successfully championed moving the county seat to Carlton.

More significantly, his leadership and generosity helped to raise the $18,000 to cover expenses when the power company donated land for today’s Jay Cooke State Park (nearly a half million dollars in today’s economy).

Henry also played a major role in rebuilding Carlton County after the horrific 1918 fire.   

In short, Henry Oldenburg significantly influenced the economic and environmental development of this region.

“Emily and I have taken a measure of inspiration from knowing this history,” Glenn explains. He points out that an often ignored part of the Oldenburg story was the role Henry’s wife, Mary, played. She was active in civic and social projects, hosting social occasions and making the home a community gathering spot. A well-educated woman, she aided the establishment of local and traveling libraries. She and her daughter, Margaret, also helped to inspire the creation of Jay Cooke State Park.

Between Henry and Mary, there was one owner before Leslie and Helen Swanson (Glenn’s parents) bought the house and played a new role in making it noteworthy. The Swansons acquired the property in 1968, when they moved in with their brood of five. Leslie was a recognized steel guitar player and his love of music rubbed off on his eldest two sons, Keith, the eldest, becoming a music teacher and symphony conductor, and Glenn, a jazz drummer.

Leslie and Helen’s passion for the property led them to invest 40 years of spare time restoring the house and grounds to their original splendor.

“After the Oldenburgs sold the place, the second family to own the property allowed it to decline,” Emily says. “Glenn’s dad spent four decades fixing up the house and the property, which had especially suffered.”

To give a sense of the challenge of the restoration: 17 truckloads of cinders had to be removed from the Morning Glory Pool. Leslie replaced all the concrete walks circling the pool and returned it to its original design. An estimated 100 loads of brush were cleared from the grounds to reproduce the pristine carpet of green that sprawls back and around to the trees that shelter the back of the property.

“My husband worked so hard on this property,” says Helen, whom everyone calls Mama. “First, he had to jack up the house to make it level. He removed the coal furnace and put in gas, redid the porch, replaced all the upstairs windows. Leslie had been a carpenter so he had all the right skill sets.”

Maintaining the grounds was a major undertaking as well, she said. “The people who lived here were old and when he died she was unable to take care of it.” There were innumerable exterior projects.

One of the biggest undertakings was getting the house listed on the National Register. Once the home had been refurbished, the process was set in motion. Ultimately it took six trips to Minneapolis, with architects and historians. “When we got approval from Washington it was the happiest day of our lives!” says Helen.

When Glenn’s father died in 2011, it became apparent that the property would be too much for his mother to maintain alone. Glenn became the most logical candidate to return to preserve the property.

The second-born in the Swanson family, Glenn left at an early age to become one of the Twin Cities’ leading jazz drummers. Unexpected doors opened to multimedia production and international tours with top artists. He co-authored the book Behind the Shades with Sheila Raye Charles, daughter of the famed Ray Charles, and contributed his energy to numerous community-oriented activities, like co-founding the PipJazz Foundation. His long-cultivated musical connections have been instrumental today in attracting world-class talent to this seemingly remote Northland locale.

Upon returning home, Glenn and his mother began envisioning a future for the historic property. They set about acquiring permits to make Oldenburg House the first B&B inn in Carlton.

Glenn and Emily would then devoted time to renovating the house interior, adding porch supports and creating “The Carlton Room,” a classy, intimate entertainment venue. Glenn next designed their website and Emily created a private non-profit organization, Oldenburg Arts & Cultural Community, to bring their long-term vision to fruition.

Now ready for prime time, the inn offers two suites, appropriately named the Oldenburg Suite and Jay Cooke Suite and features bicycling and kayaking packages with weekend stays. Glenn and Emily promote their haven as a place to recharge – to “Find Your Nature.” The B&B comes with a house dog, too – the charming goldendoodle, Sukie.

Beside the charm and elegance of the house, the Swansons love the  fabulous setting. “The house is nestled within a natural amphitheater of rock and pine that creates a vibrant embrace of this open space,” says Glenn.

“It’s like Mother Nature has opened her hands and created a mystical space within this timeless place where people can gather and experience the universe. It’s almost like church, a wonderful, natural cathedral, a setting so unique that it truly is one in a million.”

Echoing the community orientation of the home’s original owners, Glenn says, “Our aim is to contribute to this region’s vitality through artistic expression and cultural exchange. … We plan to create events and activities that are contemporary, local in context and global in scope.”

To that end, the venue has become more than a place for a classy overnight stay or a place to host your wedding.

The Carlton Room with the “Cookin’ at the O” concerts has drawn major blues and jazz talents, hailing from Chicago, Seattle and elsewhere, to this modest location once a month on a Saturday. Glenn often leads the “house band” for the sessions. The $65 fee covers the concert and dinner.

On Thursday evenings, the house’s Magnolia Salon hosts, serving up sandwiches, soups, drink and presenters to spur conversation about creativity.

The Swansons also host fundraisers and music camps, festivals and other activities.

The intention is to return the property to its welcoming provenance and to share, whatever the season, the natural beauty that is like comfort food for the soul at the Oldenburg House … served today with a seasoning of jazz and blues.

Ed Newman, in addition to a 30-year career in advertising, has been a publishing writer and columnist since the early 1980s: 8 books, 450 articles, 4000+ blog posts ago.

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Find out about Oldenburg House concerts, events and room rates at www.oldenburghouse.com. The Cookin’ at the O concert for August will be Chicago native Pipi Ardennia, along with Daniel Leahy on piano, Mike Nellas on bass and Glenn Swanson on drums (Aug. 18). Other August events include the Honey Bee Folk Festival (Aug. 3-4) and the Family Picnic & Music at the O with a music camp (Aug. 18).

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Ed Newman, in addition to a 30-year career in advertising, has been a publishing writer and columnist since the early 1980s: 8 books, 450 articles, 4000+ blog posts ago.