1882 St. Paul Victorian mansion and former Showcase Home lists for $2.7 million

Whitney Blessing’s 1882 Victorian mansion on St. Paul’s Cathedral Hill is filled with mystery.

How does one explain an addition placed against the front door, blocking out several windows? And why is there a small trap door, too small for a body to fit through, into the basement? To top it all off, are there really friendly spirits, as guests at the New Victorian Mansion Bed and Breakfast have reported?

“No worries if you feel a female presence in the Cathedral Room — it is a caring, compassionate being who also loves the home!” wrote one couple in Blessing’s guestbook.

Blessing doesn’t have a strong connection with them (she blames that on her lack of a sixth sense), but several guests who have stayed in the Cathedral Suite have described a friendly presence. One person gingerly told her he saw a spirit’s face in the room’s window while he was passing by outside.

“I’ve never seen her, but I feel protected [by her],” Blessing said. “I can walk around in the middle of the night when it’s dark and not feel any fear.”

Saying goodbye to her family’s constant companion or companions will be hard, she said. After 13 years of living in the nine-bedroom, nine-bath home (10 of those years spent operating the bed and breakfast), Blessing said her time there has come to a close. She is looking to downsize with her four school-aged children to something much smaller than the 15,294-square-foot home, she said.

Her only wish is to find someone willing to keep the bed and breakfast operating and who wants to honor the home’s legacy.

“I would like to sell to someone who is going to come in and love this place and elevate it beyond what I’ve been able to do for it,” she said. “You get the best of hospitality; your guests are in your home, so they’re on their best behavior and they do become friends.”

It has come a long way from the mansion she purchased in 2013. Back then, it was in such bad condition that the city forbade residence until extensive repairs were made.

The house was a hodgepodge of all sorts from past iterations. Metal lockers remained from when the place served as a boarding school. A commercial kitchen in the basement was likely from when the house was a nursing home, Blessing guessed. Walls in odd areas to section off spaces were perhaps from its time as a home for teen mothers.

After she gutted it, Blessing submitted the house to be part of a showcase home for the American Society of Interior Designers in 2013. Nearly 40 of the Twin Cities’ top interior designers converged, giving each room a facelift while honoring its historical past.

“It was an extreme makeover situation for us,” she said. “They presented their designs to us and all sorts of swatches, paint colors and samples displayed for us.”

As a result of the makeover, key Victorian designs such as Roman pillars and Grecian engravings — meant to showcase that the original owners were well-traveled — were restored. Throughout the house, the design crew kept the original exposed brick walls. Inoperative fireplaces were reworked with decorative logs or converted to gas.

But some areas couldn’t be saved. In the living room, part of the ceiling had caved in, so the renovation team installed new handprinted wallpaper in off-white and muted orange colors. In addition to getting an extreme makeover from local designers, other perks that came with the project include Cambria countertops with a lifetime warranty.

The highlight of the bed and breakfast is the Cathedral Suite, a bedroom with a turret that overlooks the Cathedral of St. Paul.

“It’s our most popular room, but it’s also our smallest,” Blessing said. “It’s because of the views, the little [turret] nook, and we do have a big bathtub in here.”

There’s no shortage of good company at the house. Besides the four bedrooms rented out as part of the bed and breakfast, Blessing leases out the home’s addition to the Cathedral Hill Montessori School.

On sunny afternoons, children can be heard playing in the backyard. Then there’s the array of visitors staying at the house who range from Minneapolitans in desperate need of a staycation or out-of-state visitors looking to explore St. Paul and beyond.

Plus, of course, there’s the spirit who lingers in the Cathedral Room and another less noticeable one Blessing calls Rosy who hangs out by the commercial kitchen in the basement.

A channel once told Blessing the Cathedral Room spirit is “very prim and proper and wears dark clothing,” Blessing said. “She also said she likes me very much but doesn’t like my decorating.”

Whitney Blessing (651-321-8151, info@newvictorianbb.com) has the $2.7 million listing.