The Parlor

In the 1890s, when the Newcomb-Stillwell mansion was built, a parlor was a formal, best-dressed room in a Victorian home used for receiving guests, hosting tea parties, and conducting social calls. It functioned as a space to display family status through refined furniture and mementos.

The Newcomb-Stillwell parlor features mahogany crown molding with a walnut fireplace. The carpeting, although not original to the house, is period. Looms of the time could only produce carpeting in 26.5 inch strips, and then sewn together from the back.

The painting above the fireplace is titled Evening Landscape by Julian Rix, and is original to the house. Julian Rix was born in Vermont in 1850, and died in his studio in New York in 1903. He obtained commercial success from oil paintings of the pacific northwest coast and upstate New York.

The house when constructed was wired for electricity and plumbed for gas lighting. However, at the time, there was roughly only two to four hours of electrical lighting available. The light fixtures were designed to accommodate both electrical bulbs (down facing globes) and gas lamps (up facing globes).

The furniture in this room has been donated to The Quincy Museum and is period.