Wilcox Mansion, ca. 1960s. Meriden, Connecticut.

People and Places

The Renaissance Revival room is the rear parlor from the mansion of Jedediah Wilcox, a wealthy manufacturer of carpetbags and skirt hoops in mid-nineteenth-century Meriden, Connecticut. Wilcox was born into an old New England family; his ancestor John Wilcox emigrated from England to the new settlement at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1636. In 1848 Jedediah and two of his brothers moved to Meriden to set up their respective businesses. At its height, Jedediah's firm, J. Wilcox and Company, employed more than five hundred workers. A catastrophic fire in 1865 severely damaged Wilcox's business; funds from his insurance policy, however, enabled him to expand his operation and he began to manufacture flannels, cashmeres, and women's clothing. He subsequently established the Wilcox Britannia Company, which produced silverplated wares. It was at the peak of his career that he built his showpiece. The Connecticut architect Augustus Truesdell designed the house for Wilcox between 1868 and 1870. At the time it was built and furnished, it was valued at $200,000 and was described in a local newspaper as "the most expensive and luxurious house in the city." Wilcox's fortunes turned in the 1870s, however, and he declared bankruptcy in 1874. He was forced to sell the house for a mere $20,000 five years after it was built.