The Pillsbury Mansion
The Pillsbury Castle was opened in 2024 for tours as part of the ASID Showcase after almost a year’s worth of renovations. Yes, it is THOSE Pillsburys. The baking brand we know and love was started by the Pillsbury family in 1869. Being a family business, more than one Pillsbury worked in the company and they built many homes in Minnesota. So which one built this home?
To me, the Pillsbury history is more complicated to follow than most. Unlike most families business that are started by two brothers or a father and son (and the contributions of the female family members ignored by history), Pillsbury was begun by an uncle and nephew. Uncle John and his nephew, Charles, started with one mill in Minneapolis. By 1889, there were five. Soon, they were the largest flour milling company in the country.
Uncle John really wasn’t that interested in the business. He was more of a silent partner or financier. He branched out to do other things like be the Governor of Minnesota and the “Father of the University of Minnesota”. Charles was the real leader of the Pillsbury business. His innovations and advancements helped spread the Pillsbury name worldwide.
It was John’s son, Alfred, who built the home recently renovated. Alfred did eventually (and like his father, half-heartedly) work for Pillsbury. But before that he made his mark in a different way: football.
Alfred (nicknamed “Pilly”) was a founding member of the University of Minnesota’s football team. Most importantly, he owned a football. It was the only one the team had. Player eligibility was a little more loose-goosey then, so Alfred played all the way through law school, from 1886-1893. Alfred would later make donations to improve Northrup Field and also to help build Memorial Stadium.
After graduation, Pilly married Eleanor Field - who was better known as Gretchen. The couple built their home on east 22nd street in 1901. While he worked for Pillsbury and served on multiple corporate boards, Alfred’s outdoorsy/sportsman personality found real purpose on the Minneapolis Park Board and he served for almost 20 years.
An interesting note about the couple is that they were fervently against women getting the right to vote. They hosted several fundraisers and lectures in the years leading up to the passage of the 19th amendment. There isn’t much available to clarify their views on the subject, but I do plan to check the voter registration records the next time I visit the Minnesota Historical Society to see if Gretchen ever changed her mind.
Later in life, Alfred developed a passion for Asian art which led him and his collections to becoming fixtures at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Gretchen also became involved in an artistic endeavor. She was considered an expert in the theater and regularly traveled to give lectures on the subject.
Alfred and Gretchen never had children. After Alfred and Gretchen passed, their Minneapolis home was offered to “any living male relative”. It was briefly occupied by a cousin, George and his young family, but the neighborhood had lost popularity. They moved out to Lake Minnetonka just like all of the other Minneapolis “elite” and the home was sold to the Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary.
It was then rented by an architecture firm for a few years, then the advertising firm Carmichael Lynch was headquartered there before ALMOST being taken out by the wrecking ball. The home returned to private ownership and the Camarena family spent thousands of hours bringing it back to life.
Now, thanks to new owners and the efforts of over 30 designers and countless crasftspeople, they have taken it to a whole new level and it will continue to be the family showpiece it was meant to be.
The Oldest Room in Minnesota
In the basement of the Pillsbury Castle is an unusual find. What is now the billiards room and was once Alfred’s library is probably the “Oldest Room in Minnesota”. How is that possible? How can one room in a house be older than the rest of it?
When the home was built in 1905, Alfred had visited England and salvaged the interior oak panelling on the walls, the floors, the fireplace mantel and the hand carved plaster ceilings from just one room of a dilapidated 17th century estate. The materials were shipped to the United States and reassembled in his basement.
