St. Paul duplex with bungalow vibe on the market for just under $700K

Thomas Gluesing stops short of calling it magic, but he has sensed a special vibe from his home.

The 1923 craftsman-style house in the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood of St. Paul seems to facilitate serendipitous connections, even a feeling of wellbeing for those inside.

“One brings oneself into a space, and that space, if you’re open to it, can collaborate with you to bring a peace of mind,” Gluesing said. “It’s not only how many bedrooms, how many floors, screened-in porch, blah blah blah.”

For the record, though: The house is a two-story, up-and-down duplex with 2,400 finished square feet and floors of oak and maple. Each unit has two bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room, dining room, kitchen, sunroom and, yes, a screened porch.

Gluesing bought the house in the early 1990s and did extensive refinishing and updating while staying true to the craftsman or arts and crafts style that emphasizes natural materials, functionality and simplicity.

But Gluesing and his partner, Gary Peter, both retired, have decided to move into a condominium. They have listed the home at $699,900.

Though advertised as a craftsman bungalow and featured in the Twin Cities’ Bungalow Club’s 2024 Bungalow Tour, it technically isn’t. The by-the-book definition requires one to one-and-a-half stories, while Gluesing’s home has two.

But in look and style, it qualifies, said Tim Counts, the area Bungalow club president.

“I’ve been in there several times, and the upper and lower units are a very nice, classic bungalow layout,” Counts said. “Those guys have done such an amazing job of taking the style of the house and the original elements of it and even enhancing them.”

The entryway leads to a living room, dining room and kitchen on one side. A short hallway connects to two bedrooms with a bath in between on the other side, which “describes 90% of [all] bungalow floorplans,“ Counts said.

Bungalows proliferated in Minnesota and across the U.S. in the early decades of the 20th century, coinciding with the expansion of the American middle class, Counts said.

“They were wildly, wildly popular,” he said. “The concept was having a piece of your own paradise, where newlyweds can settle in and set up a home that is compact and manageable by a small family.”

Many early 20th-century songs celebrated the houses, Counts said, with titles like “You’re Just the Type for a Bungalow” or “Our Bungalow of Dreams.”

By the mid-1920s, bungalows were fading in popularity. But the design has retained a lot of hardcore fans, including people who go on bungalow tours and those who flip through magazines and books devoted to preserving and restoring bungalows.

When Jim Madson, a retired contractor who owns a bungalow he restored himself, sees a bungalow remodeled in other styles, he calls it “remuddled.”

Painting woodwork, for example, is “a big no no” for Madson, even if a real-estate agent insists it will “brighten the place up” and help it sell. Installing exterior siding over classic stucco and brick, ripping out kitchen and bathroom fixtures, creating an open floor plan — all kinds of alterations that violate bungalow traditions, in Madson’s opinion.

But Gluesing’s renovations, Madson said, have carefully maintained the bungalow look.

“It’s a really well-done house,” Madson said.

Gluesing has pored through his share of bungalow magazines and renovated carefully. When a carbon-monoxide detector sent out a false alarm, a firefighter and Xcel Energy worker responding to the call admired the home’s woodwork and built-in buffet.

“Visually, I’m always pleased when I just, like, sit down in a chair and kind of look about me,” Gluesing said.

He also likes being able to walk from his house to the Mississippi River or Summit Avenue and catching an express bus a block away.

But the attributes Gluesing most values are more personal, like friendships formed among people his house brought together — such as one between a handcrafted furniture-maker and another bungalow owner. He delighted in chatting with people on the Bungalow Tour about the home’s features. And after Gluesing’s mother died in 2017, and his father needed a new place to live, he was happy to offer his dad one level of the duplex.

“A house is so much more than walls and the plot of land,” Gluesing said. “It’s the people who live in that house. It’s the friends and family who live in that house. It’s the shared experiences in that house. In that home, I should say.“

Nora Webb of Verve Realty (612-245-9205, nora@ververealty.com) has the $699,900 listing.

The Twin Cities Bungalow Club’s 2025 Bungalow Tour runs 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 10. It starts at 3547 24th Ave. S., Minneapolis. No reservations required, and tickets to the $10 tour are not sold in advance.