Architecture and Preservation
The Wilber Mansion is a Queen Anne home of concrete block and red brick, with molded concrete stone pillars. It likely originally had a slate room. Unlike more traditional Queen Anne houses and other local Queen Anne examples, the Wilber Mansion has minimal ornamentation, which is representative of the Arts and Crafts style that became popular during the late 1800s.
The mansion is three stories tall with a partially above-ground basement. It has 22 rooms. As was common at the time of construction, the first floor served as the public-facing part of the house and featured many rooms for entertaining.
This floor also featured numerous details that demonstrated the Wilber family’s wealth and artistry, including the letter “W” on the tile floor in the entry and embossed on doorknobs.
Invited guests would enter the house via the port cochere, or covered carriage porch. They would exit directly from the carriage onto the stoop, designed to be the same height as a horse drawn carriage, or could walk up via the stairs on either side of the stoop. From the foyer, guests would enter the sitting hall. This was the largest room on the first floor and was a common feature in homes at the time, as it served as both a reception area and a living room. Perhaps the most notable manifestation of the Arts and Crafts style was in this home: the matte green tile fireplace.
The sitting hall also provided access to all other public areas of the house: the parlor, study, and dining room.. The parlor was used only on formal occasions and was furnished with the residents’ most lavish belongings to demonstrate their wealth and cultural background. The Wilber family’s wealth was clearly on display with the Tiffany chandelier, as well as the electric lights.
Across from the parlor was the study, which was used as an office, library, and family room. Like the sitting hall, this room had a matte green tile fireplace, as well as built-in bookcases. The dining room, adjacent to the study, also had wood built-ins: a buffet and glass-front cabinets, which were common in Victorian-era homes. It also had plate rails above the doorways, used to display china, and a bay window with a built-in window seat. The dining room fireplace had Delf-style pictorial tiles and blue patterned tiles created by Ella Wilber, the home’s original owners’ daughter.
The kitchen and butler’s pantry were adjacent to the dining room, though were not considered public spaces. They did, however, have many conveniences, including a radiator that doubled as a plate warmer and an ice box with an opening to the back porch, which allowed the ice delivery man to deposit ice without entering the home. The kitchen had two ovens and two sinks, one for obtaining water to cook with and drink and one for washing dishes and doing laundry.
Also adjacent to the dining room was the conservatory, which housed flowers and other plants and was used for eating breakfast. The final space in the first floor was the sitting room—separate from the sitting hall. The sitting room was across from the dining room and was a more casual living space used by the residents. This room was directly adjacent to the home’s grand staircase, which entered into the home’s foyer. A second staircase, adjacent to the kitchen, was used primarily by servants and also led to the basement.
The stairwell led directly to a large hallway on the second floor called the living hall, which resembled the first-floor sitting hall and was used as another living space. It also provided access to all second-floor rooms: a bedroom with an adjacent sitting room and walk-through dressing room; a master bedroom with an adjoining dressing room; and a small room with an adjoining dressing room that may have been used as living quarters for a married maid and hired hand, or as an entertaining space for close friends.
The grand stairwell, as well as the service stairwell, also led to the mansion’s third floor. The grand stairwell led directly to the ballroom, a large central hallway like those on the first and second floor. During the Victorian era, ballrooms were often constructed on the top floor so that they wouldn’t need to be heated except for parties. During the summer, when the ballroom was too hot for entertaining, parties were held on the front lawn.
Other rooms on the third floor included two storage rooms, one of which contained a rainwater tank and the other serving as a large clothing storage closet. This closet was probably lined with cedar, a common material used for deterring pests. The final room on the third floor was constructed as a studio space that held a kiln. The fireplace tiles designed by Ella Wilber were likely made in this room.