Toys, Trains and Magnificent Trees: Illuminating Christmas at the Mansion

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum kicks off the Holiday Season with a new exhibition entitled, Toys, Trains and Magnificent Trees: Illuminating Christmas at the Mansion.

The exhibit, curated by Trustee Mimi Findlay and the LMMM Curatorial Committee will capture the enchantment of the holiday season, with glamorous tree displays, while paying special tribute to the sesquicentennial of the Transcontinental Railroad. Toy trains will be displayed throughout the Mansion’s Period Rooms to mark the railroad’s anniversary and highlight LeGrand Lockwood‘s invention known as the Palace Car. Vintage toy trains on display are from the LMMM Permanent Collection as well as on loan from the Wilton Historical Society.

The first Transcontinental Railroad was built between 1863 and 1869 and united the east with the west allowing travelers, for the first time, to leave New York and arrive in San Francisco in less than a week. Previously, the trip would take up to six months. On September 12, 1871, the Norwalk Gazette wrote that the first luxury car known as the Palace Car, “was concocted, planned and built by LeGrand Lockwood of Norwalk ….and now running upon every chief railroad on the American continent,” a contribution to the Transcontinental railroad by the visionary magnate and his interior designer, George Platt, who also designed the Mansion’s Dining Room.

The Mansion will also feature 21st century holiday decorations with magnificent trees and seasonal displays by renowned interior designer Victoria Vandamm of Vandamm Interiors and award-winning Trudy Dujardin of Dujardin Design Associates, Inc. The Herter Brothers’ grand Victorian staircase will be adorned by silk floral designer Danna DiElsi, owner of The Silk Touch.