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Historic house in Connecticut, United States

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 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.

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 mansion features of living space The home was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1971. In a decades long Christmastime tradition, interior decorators deck out about a dozen rooms in the mansion with holiday decorations. An annual "community celebration" is held in December with Christmas music, refreshments and a Santa Claus. In 2007, 10 interior decorators volunteered their services and materials for the event. The museum has hosted an annual antique show since 1978. In 2006 the show was held the last weekend in October and attracted dealers from Ohio and Pennsylvania as well as Connecticut. In the 2000s, statues and furniture that had originally been in the mansion were bought and placed back in it. Two marble statues, sculpted in 1859 by Joseph Mozier, an American artist, and bought by Lockwood, were purchased for $185,000. A $165,000 sofa original to the home was also acquired and brought back to it. The home was used as a filming location for the 2004 remake of The Stepford Wives. Paramount Pictures paid the museum $400,000 to paint its central rotunda. The studio also left behind some large paintings (in essence, theatrical pastiches), which serve to emphasize the dramatic size of the rotunda. As a result, the walls look fresh and decorated, and will remain protected until further funds become available for proper, curatorial restoration of the original damaged surfaces.