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Pillsbury Mansion
TODOTC.com
To Do in the Twin Cities
Tours
Pillsbury Mansion
Date: July 14, 2024
116 E 22nd St
Mpls, MN 55404
Phone: (612) 807-7195
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From the time we arrived for our tour of Pillsbury Mansion to the time this page was online is a little more than two hours. Bear with us as we write up what we saw. There are tours in the next couple of weeks, and next year, that can be found on Eventbrite for about $40. Get the tickets if you can. Here is a taste of what you will see. I expect in early August this page will be done by then we'll have 20 other things we have written about in ToDoTC.com. Enjoy! D&E
1. To start with we found tickets on Eventbrite at:
2. I know you hate paper but as a paper magazine publisher trust us on this one. PRINT out a copy of EACH of your tickets to get through the Door Monitor. LOL. The people in front of us had one ticket printed out and had to hand over their phone for the ticket person to find the second ticket... Go with paper, I'll plant a tree for you.
Out of the three couples, us being LAST, we were the first one to get in... GO WITH PAPER!
3. At the door you will be greeted by a nice lady that will describe the tour. You can have your phone read the QR Codes and each room's. By doing the walking tour listening to the QR tour audio you may spend about ten minutes a room, we don't have that patience it took us an hour to walk and look and I took about 250 pictures of four floors.
So the concept of this tour is two guys bought the well known Pillsbury House. They then contacted contractors and room decorators to bring the house current with todays ways of life. There are nine bathrooms and a dozen TVs. For a mansion it has been converted into a fairly warm environment.
As you can see by the window pictures it overlooks downtown South of downtown, but don't expect to see grand gardens like you may see at the Hill House in St Paul. The tour is on the crowded side, in most rooms we saw 6-8 people also taking a tour.
The Pillsbury Mansion is on the corner of E 22nd & Stevens.
To protect the floors everyone was asked to put on booties.
You will find a good number of interesting fixtures which the contractors brought in.
At the entrance you will see the grand staircase the center of the house.
Off to the west is a large sitting room. The color scheme throughout the house was shades of green.
The key art is carried on several places with different internal pieces.
And some fairly eclectic art & furniture.
Like most old homes there are five or six fireplaces yet the mansion is heated with steam radiators.
There is an abunance of bars & social rooms in the house.
And many pieces and places for art.
Also you will find three or four kitchen and food preparation areas.
As with most houses around the Minneapolis Institute of Art area, houses are close to each other with small lawns.
You will find wine storge all around the house excepting in the kids area. And no large eating table for group meals more bar seating.
There are many unusual wall coverings from hand painted to fabrics.
There is an unusual number of sculptures in the house. And a lot of sitting areas.
We talked to one of the contractors about the wood. The door shown is mahogony and white oak on each side of a door. And today it is still a solid door. The angles on the inlaid wood work were done by artisans not replicated today. The contractors took hours of labor intensive work to bring the mahogany look back to life.
As with most housees of the time they have a grand stair case for introductions.
There was a lot of work to bring the electrical and plumbing back to todays standards. That was accomplished by tearing up the floors that time had done it's damage to, now too restored.
A turn of the century house used for todays people.
Ground floor is used for entertaining. Second floor is adults and guests bedrooms.
They have an Expresso machine you can use while in the bath tub.
All the bathrooms are full of marble and art.
Third floor is the kids floor with secret play rooms and furniture their size.
Interesting view of downtown Minneapolis.
There were several kids play & reading rooms.
The marble used is bold and expensive.
There was an interesting parquet wall
Not all floor coverings were wood.
The laundry room, on the third floor, had two washers and dryers.
Finally we went to the basement which was more of a man cave including a vault.
Off the billards room was a steel door vault.
They have an abundance of wine & alcohol storage.
It's a fun tour, come see it, if you can get tickets!
Contact us Dennis@ToDoTC.com