Oliver G. Traphagen House Mansion gets new life after 2014 fire

By Adelle Whitefoot awhitefoot@duluthnews.com

Oliver G. Traphagen, one of the most prolific architects in Duluth history, built his home in Duluth’s Endion neighborhood.

The Oliver G. Traphagen House, located at 1509 E. Superior St., was built in 1892 as a double residence divided longitudinally into equal units, each with a private entrance. Each side of the house contained a parlor, sitting room, library, dining room and kitchen on the ground floor with chambers on the second and third floors.

All major rooms were given their own fireplace as evidenced by seven massive chimneys that protrude above the roof lines.

Traphagen lived in the house until he moved to Hawaii in 1897 when one of his children became ill. Then, Chester Congdon and his family moved in until the Glensheen Mansion was finished in 1908. The Congdon family continued to own the house into the 1930s and converted it into a nine-unit apartment building in 1919.

The building switched owners countless times since the Congdon family sold it. In 1986, Howard Klatzky purchased it and used it as residential and commercial space for HTK marketing communications. But in August 2014, the historic Oliver G. Traphagen House was damaged by a fire.

HTK was in the process of moving its business to Canal Park at the time of the fire and the building was for sale. The fire caused more than $150,000 in damage and was eventually ruled as arson.

The historic mansion now has new life as the Redstone Lofts, with 11 modern luxury lofts. The mansion was bought by Dean Jablonsky, a Minneapolis businessman and president of Redstone Lofts, in March 2016 for $45,000. u