Lewis and Augusta Reitz House

101 S. 15th Ave. E.

Swedish immigrants Lewis and Augusta Reitz originally owned this house. Lewis was a pharmacist and also a rector who founded St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. The Reitz family lived here until 1897 when they traded homes with Austin and Mary McGindley. According to an 1893 Stanford University Law article, Mary was the first woman admitted to the Minnesota bar. In Duluth, Austin became a prominent lawyer and judge.

A furrier—likely David A. Cone—acquired the property next. The garage still has bars on the windows where the furs were processed and there is a vault room in the basement where the furs were stored. During the Depression, the building was converted into a duplex and one of the units functioned as some kind of hotel. The current owners state, “Family lore is that Patty Duke stayed here and had cocktails in what is now our TV room.” Before they bought the house, it had already been restored back to a single family dwelling.