John Panton or Richard M. Sellwood house built in 1903 at 1931 East Second street was fashioned in a neo-Classical architectural style. The 21-room mansion was given to the Benedictine Sisters of Duluth in March 1956 by Richard M. Sellwood, Jr., and Joseph G. Sellwood in memory of their parents Richard (died 1940) and Ella Eugene Fitzgerald Sellwood (died in 1954), Duluth pioneers. Richard Sellwood was a Cornell University graduate, a banker-industrialist with interests in mining. He came to Duluth in 1888 with his parents. Ella Sellwood was a member of Our Lade of the Rosary Catholic parish of Duluth. The house was to be called Sellwood Hall. Mother Martina announced it would be used to house students of Stanbrook Hall, and functions by the alumni of the College of St. Scholastica. An elevator runs from the first to the second floors and a tunnel joins the main house to the furnace room located under the carriage house. There are formal gardens. It was used as a residence for Stanbrook Hall high school boarding students from about 1956 to 1967, it was then used as a residence for students from the College of St. Scholastica until 1970, and for Sisters from St. Scholastica until 1983. At that time it was sold, and is now a group home for people with developmental disabilities.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Duluth, Kathryn A. Martin Library, Northeast Minnesota Historical Collections