page_title: Lockwood–Mathews Mansion
section_title: As private home
hierarchical_section_title: Lockwood–Mathews Mansion / History / As private home
caption_attribution_description: LeGrand Lockwood (1820-1872)
context_page_description: The Lockwood–Mathews Mansion is a Second Empire style country house in Norwalk, Connecticut. Now a museum, it was built in 1864-68 for railroad and banking magnate LeGrand Lockwood.
  The 62-room 44,000 square feet mansion was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978.
  It has been described as "one of the earliest and finest surviving Second Empire style country houses ever built in the United States." It sits at 295 West Ave., in Mathews Park, where the Stepping Stones Museum for Children is also located.
context_section_description: The home was built on an estate, then called "Elm Park," for LeGrand Lockwood, who made his fortune in banking and the railroad industry. Construction began in 1864 just west of the Norwalk River in Norwalk and was completed four years later. Designed by European-trained, New York-based architect Detlef Lienau, the 44,000 square feet (4,100 m²) mansion  features 26,402 square feet (2,452.8 m²) of living space and "is considered his most significant surviving work," according to the association. Both American and immigrant artisans worked to construct and decorate the house.  Prominent New York decorating firms, including Herter Brothers and Leon Marcotte were contracted to furnish the mansion's interiors.  
  Financial reversals in 1869 and Lockwood's death in 1872 resulted in loss of the estate through foreclosure in 1874 by Lockwood's heirs. Charles D. Mathews, described in his New York Times obituary as "a very wealthy retired New-York provision dealer", and his wife, Rebecca Thompson Mathews, bought the property in 1876. The mansion was a residence and suburban retreat for the Mathews family, with their Thompson and Martin relatives, until the death of Charles's daughter Florence in 1938.
caption: Railroad and banking magnate LeGrand Lockwood
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