Welcome to the sunroom. This is one of our favorite rooms in the Cotton Mansion and has been noted as one of the favorite rooms of the original family.

We’ve noticed, as we’ve had parties and gatherings over the years, this is one of the most frequented rooms, and it’s where people always gravitate to gather. I think it’s because it’s one of the smaller rooms you can actually have a cozy conversation in.

One of the things I think that’s fascinating about this room is the size of the fireplace. It’s as big as the fireplaces in the other rooms, which is quite oversized for a small room like this. Indeed, if you were sitting by this fireplace and it was roaring like one of the other fireplaces, you’d probably be pretty roasted out.

Well, the reason it’s that big is because the windows in this room are actually made to be three-season or four-season. So this room is heated, doesn’t need a fireplace, and it has a big fireplace, but the windows also actually come out and you can replace them with screens.

Imagine a crisp fall night in Duluth, which we have many of, next to this roaring fireplace with the lions on either side, in this cozy room with a crisp chill in the air. That’s really what this room probably was for, or one of the ways it could be used. And it’s probably the way that I like to imagine it the best.

We keep the windows in, and it works for a really great small conservatory where we grow plants, and especially overwinter plants that can’t be outside in our colder temperatures. That’s a common thing that was popular back then: horticulture. Glen Mansion had banana trees, and rooms like this were used to overwinter larger plants that were tropical or didn’t survive in this climate.

Again, for that idea of having something that people hadn’t seen before or from a long ways away, that was common in places like this. So these south-facing sunrooms were designed to do several things. They were cozy conversations. They were breakfast rooms. They were places to overwinter plants. And they were also a place to have a cozy conversation in the evening and feel the wind, feel the breeze, but not have any bugs, and enjoy a nice fireplace.

One of the other interesting features of the sunroom is the green floor. If you’ve toured Glensheen, it may look familiar. Glensheen’s most expensive room is the breakfast room, and it’s 100% clad in Rookwood tile, which was designed by James Bradstreet, kind of the preeminent famous interior designer from Minneapolis during the turn of the century. Cotton Mansion was built at the same time, between 1906 and 1908. Both were built along with many other prominent homes in Duluth. It was truly a boom time.

And one of the things that came with materials sourced from a long ways away were the craftsmen. So it wasn’t just the materials that came from far-flung places; it was the craftsmen that installed them. So this neighborhood was teeming with expert craftsmen from all over the world.

This tile floor matches the tile floor in Glensheen and is kind of a testament to that. And the craftsmen that tiled different places and did the woodwork in different places were largely the same teams of craftsmen, and they’d go from house to house. Most of these houses all took a couple of years to build, and so these craftsmen were shared between these properties over this time period.

And there’s a few materials that were used that were the same, I think probably because the design element looked great here, and so they could put it over there. And one of the things I kind of love about this place that kind of ties into Glensheen a little bit is this Rookwood floor.

To continue the tour, please head to the dining room for the next stop on the self-guided audio tour. You’ll find the QR code for the dining room audio guide on the mantel.